


Windmills In My Heart

by tinyace



Series: Dutch High School [2]
Category: Wicked - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Established Relationship, Fluff, Other, Sequel, Trans Character, with a sprinkle of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2020-07-11 09:44:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 25,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19926031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinyace/pseuds/tinyace
Summary: Glinda starts her final year of high school, but since this is dutch-based everything you know is turned upside down: prom is a gala and valedictorians are non-existent. But no worries, Elphaba and Glinda are still in love.





	1. First Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **NOTE:** this is the sequel to _My Bike's Gone_ and I recommend you read that first! It's good to be back. :D
> 
>  **Dutch Dictionary**  
>  _Eindexamens:_ literally ‘final exams’. You thought your final exams were hardcore? Well, does your country have an organized central exam that every student of your level takes at the exact same time? We Dutchies do! More on that as the story progresses though. Sometimes referred to as _centraal examens_.  
>  _Gym_ : gym is gym of course, but a few things might be different in your country/school so I just wanted to clarify a few things: 1. Usually gym is taught in a double period (100 minutes), as it involves dressing, and usually students need to cycle to football- or hockey fields in a different part of town. 2. Nobody showers. You just get changed and you have your mandatory printless white Tees and your dark-coloured gym shorts. 3. In your last year, gym (just like a few other courses that don’t involve you taking an eindexamen) are finished after first semester (so till December).

Glinda fished the key out of her pocket and opened her new locker. This year she had the one closest to the ground, which was annoying. Now she had to crouch down every time she needed to get to her stuff. She threw her additional bag with gym clothes inside and quickly opened up her agenda to check her schedule: Dutch in room 217. What a fantastic way to start a Monday morning. 

“Glinda!”

She jumped up. “Oz almighty! Don’t startle me like that, Pfan.” 

Pfannee crossed her arms and looked her over. “So, how was your summer?”

Glinda’s stomach dropped. She had dreaded this moment all summer long and with good reason; this was less of a question and more of an interrogation. Nonetheless, she stood strong. “Good. Yours?”

“Oh, I think my tan speaks for itself. Four weeks in a luxurious Winkie resort. Couldn’t ask for more.”

Glinda decided it was better to let the usage of that slur slide. “Great, Pfan. I’m glad you had such a good time.”

“Sure you do,” Pfannee rolled her eyes and opened her locker - at perfect height, _of course_. She dumped her stuff and when she realized there was enough of an audience, Pfannee raised her voice. “Anyway, you still dating the _green freak_ then?” 

Glinda turned red in the face. Her eyes darted around the hallway. A few people had definitely looked up. “What’s it to you?”

“I just wanted a status update. Y’know, since you haven’t contacted me or Shen _all_ summer.” 

She grinded her teeth. School hadn’t even started and Pfannee was already unbearable. “It’s not like you contacted me either.” Glinda said coldly and adjusted her bag around her shoulder. “See you in class, Pfannee.”

\--

First break was cut short as they had to cycle to the other side of Nest Hardings for gym class. Normally used as football fields, the club rented out the fields for the school to have gym outdoors. As she got to school by bus, Glinda had hopped on the back of Elphaba’s bike and held on tight. They were talking to Boq about some video game that would get released soon. Glinda listened with only half a mind; her thoughts were with her other friends, if she could even call them that anymore. After Pfannee had confronted her at the lockers they hadn’t spoken a word. Shenshen hadn’t even asked how her summer was! In the back of her mind she always feared the day she’d return back to school, but what she expected was a fallout, not a fizzle. 

Maybe part of the reason why her summer was so perfect was because she didn’t need to think about those two. All she did was be with Elphaba. Even when Glinda was on vacation with her parents, they kept in contact throughout the day. They FaceTimed every night and texted whenever even something mildly interesting happened.

The five weeks they were both home in Colwen Grounds were honestly one of the best weeks of her entire life. Glinda never played a lot of video games, but Elphaba introduced her to an adorable farming simulator that she - surprising herself - really got in to. Boq came over whenever he didn’t have to work on his father’s farm and together they played console games, either bashing each other through racing (Glinda was always dead last) or shouting and laughing at some colorful party games. Shell was the first of the siblings to join in and, after some dismissal at first, Nessa came next. Glinda was really grateful that Nessa joined in, solely because with Nanny as Nessa’s hands on the controller, she didn’t end up last for once. Less enjoyable was Nessa shouting directions at a confused and disoriented Nanny.

When Frex commented that they should stop hanging in front of the TV and limited them to one hour a day, Boq came up with the brilliant idea to run a _Dungeons & Dragons_ campaign instead. Glinda had never played it before, and the first two games considered it far too nerdy. But the moment she realized her cleric could flirt with Elphaba’s handsome and mysterious druid, she didn’t want to stop. Nanny for one, was grateful that Nessa wouldn’t need her hands for this and spent her time knitting in the beat-up armchair. 

Just one day after summer break, it already felt like a fantasy too good to be true.

They arrived at the fields and were the first in the locker room. Glinda made a straight beeline for the toilet, as she always did. Too self-conscious to strip to her underwear in front of the others, she used the excuse to change in her gym shorts as she was using the toilet: _“I’m already dressed down, I don’t want to do that action twice if I don’t have to_ ,” she’d always say. She had been doing it for so many years, it was just seen as a little routine quirk at this point. It was also a good moment to double check her tuck before having to run around for two hours. 

She flushed the toilet without having used it and walked back in the locker room. A few other girls had entered and they were casually chatting amongst themselves. Elphaba was sitting on the bench, already fully dressed in gym clothes. They smiled at her.

“How do you change so fast?”

Elphaba shrugged. “It only takes long when you want it to.”

She grinned and rummaged through her bag. “Are you calling me vain?” She took out the mandatory white printless shirt and a hair tie. “Could you hold this for me, please?”

Elphaba took the hair tie. “Not at all. Some girls just like to chat in the locker room. That’s what I’ve noticed at least.”

“How observant.” She teased a smile. She took off her shirt and noticed in the corner of her eye how Elphaba’s face burnt dark green. Glinda was still wearing a singlet while other girls were stripped down to their bra, but it was clear Elphaba’s blush was reserved for her alone. They quickly turned away their gaze to respect her privacy. She found it adorable. 

“Normally you’re already helping Ms. Greyling out on the field.” 

“I felt like waiting for you.”

Glinda’s heart melted, but was aware that they weren’t alone in the room. She put on the white shirt and Elphaba handed back her tie.

The door opened and Glinda’s face dropped as Shenshen and Pfannee entered. She busied herself with her ponytail and tried hard not to eavesdrop on their conversation. After she put her gym shoes on she looked at Elphaba. Wordlessly, they left the locker room.

\--

Gym wasn’t much exciting: softball, as per usual. Glinda had hoped their last half year of gym would involve a bit more variation than past years. Perhaps some things would never change. 

She had spoken those words far too soon, as she learnt in physics class. The teacher had this big speech about how from this day forth everything was in preparation for the final exams. Not in a metaphorical sense, no, in a very practical one. The topics for the physics _eindexamen_ were announced and he had spent all summer looking through all previous _eindexamens_ to find fitting questions.The trick was that these exams were designed to lure you into a wrong direction. So a big part of this year was going to involve practicing with old exams to learn how to correctly make them.

 _Eindexamens_ weren’t until May and Glinda was already terrified. During her next two periods a similar spiel was given. Her French teacher warned them that slacking off these first months would be detrimental in May. Glinda didn’t feel like spending another year in high school and took the advice to heart.

The first day of school had gone by quick enough, and before Glinda knew it she was waiting for the bus again. The big difference from all the other times she had taken the bus was that Elphaba was sitting next to her. Their bike was parked behind the bus stop.

“Glinda, I know we’ve sort of avoided the topic all summer, but how open do you want to be about our relationship at school?” Elphaba asked. “If at all?”

Glinda frowned at the hesitant addition. “Wait, what do you mean ‘if at all’? Where is this coming from?”

Elphaba pressed their lips together. Their hands were wrapped around the edge of the bench and their knuckles turned pale. Their eyes followed a car in the other lane. “Well, you seemed kinda embarrassed whenever we were talking. Especially when other people were around.”

Her eyes grew wide, “No, Elphie -”

“It’s okay, y’know.” Elphaba finally met her gaze and smiled apologetically. “I’m green, I’m opinionated, I’m non-binary. I’m not who people should be dating, least of all you.”

Glinda could not believe the narrative they had spun in their own head. So she did the only thing she could: she leaned in and kissed them hard on the lips. She brought her hands to their neck and slowly slid them up their cheeks. As she drew the long kiss to a close she pressed their foreheads together and looked them sternly in the eyes: “Does this look like someone who regrets who she’s dating? I’d _never_ be embarrassed about this choice.”

Elphaba flushed. “But I’m-”

“Green and opinionated and non-binary,” Glinda repeated them, smiling. “And I _love_ all those things about you.”

They shied away from the compliment, a light and relieved smile next to their dark green blush. Glinda let go off them and their hands entangled unconsciously on the bench.

“I still would like to know your boundaries. I doubt either of us would be comfortable making out like that at school.”

Glinda pictured kissing Elphaba in front of Pfannee or Shenshen and wrinkled her nose. “Guess not.”

“A-And I haven’t forgotten what you said before -” they squeezed her hand “- that this might lead to people finding out more. And I get that. I’m okay with whatever.”

She let the question sink in and really thought about it for a good minute. “Well, I don’t want people _not_ knowing we’re in a relationship. Like, I don’t want to deny it when asked about it. I really am _not_ ashamed I’m dating you,” and she looked at them as she said it. “But I don’t feel like making grand statements either. I’m dating _you_ , not the school. Our relationship should be about us. And if I want to hold your hand, or kiss your cheek, that shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

“Don’t know why you would phrase that as a question, that seems sensible to me.”

“God it’s -”, she disentangled her hands from Elphaba’s and rubbed her face. “It’s just _so_ stupid, honestly. Like you thought I was embarrassed by you, but I’m embarrassed by _me_. Did you know Pfannee confronted me this morning?”

“No?” Elphaba frowned. “What did she say?”

“Asked me if we were still dating. _Loudly_. Clearly trying to make a scene.”

“Bet she called me something real nice too.”

Glinda made a confirming noise and her hands dragged down her face. “I don’t know why I still let her opinion affect me so much.”

“I don’t think that goes away as fast as you want it to.” 

“Hm.” 

Elphaba wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close. Glinda laid her head on their shoulder and let the argument play through her head. “How do you let those words not hurt you?” 

“No clue. Some words will always hurt because they were spoken with ill intention,” Elphaba paused. “The problem isn’t Pfannee asking if we’re dating, it’s the way she asked it. She was trying to get a rise out of you and she purposefully outed you in school. That’s just a dick move.” 

“You’re right,” Glinda said and lifted her head. “Damn, you’re good at analyzing this. You sound like my therapist.”

Elphaba looked concerned. “And that’s a good thing, right?” 

“Yeah,” Glinda smiled. “It means you’re a good listener.”

She got closer and kissed them again, gentler this time. Savouring the moment, and wondering how she had gotten so lucky that out of all people, she was the one who got to kiss Elphaba’s lips.


	2. St. Maarten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _Sint Maarten_ : is a celebration in November of the bishop Maarten van Tours. What gets focused on the most (and what I can remember) is how St. Maarten gave half of his mantle to a beggar and that symbolizes how you should give to those of lesser fortune and we are all humans and should be treated equally.  
> Traditions vary from region to region, but there is usually an _optocht_ (‘procession’) at night where little children are encouraged to create a _lampion_ (paper lantern) that gives off light. Older children sometimes carry torches. The procession usually gets accompanied by a marching band and ends somewhere where a big bonfire is created for everyone and share the ‘warmth’ in these cold days. Something like that. It’s kinda a weird holiday, and it isn’t super big, but y’know. This time of year can get dark, cold, and depressing in the Netherlands so you gotta invent some holidays to keep it fun.

With the biggest smile on her face, Glinda biked from her therapy session to her house. She ditched her bike in the garage and hopped around on one foot as she impatiently unlaced and kicked off her sneakers. 

“MOM! MOM!” she yelled excitedly as she ran up the stairs, two steps at a time. With a wide swing she opened the door to her mother’s office. “Mom!”

Larena looked up from her work, amused. “Yes, dear? Therapy was _that_ good?”

Glinda giggled. She was so excited, she was hopping from one feet to the other. “Yackle said we can start the process!” She squealed and skipped to her mom’s desk and planted down the letter.

“Oh sweetie, I’m so happy for you!” Larena said, and then frowned. “But I thought you had -”

“To be a legal adult, yes.” Glinda filled in. “ _But_ , there’s a long waiting list and since I’m eighteen in a few months, Yackle said we can trim some of that time by putting me on the list _now_ instead of when I actually turn eighteen. Anyway she put some stuff down in the letter for you and dad to read.”

“That’s thoughtful of her. I’ll read it soon, I promise.” Larena took her hand and smiled. “So, how do you feel about it?”

“I…” She was at a loss for words and tears of joy sprung in her eyes. 

“Come here,” her mother pulled her in and wrapped her in a big hug. Glinda, who was now fully crying, nestled on her lap. “I love you, darling. I feel like I don’t say that enough.”

Glinda closed her eyes and let herself be held by her mother’s warm embrace. “Love you too, _mama_.”

She leaned back and wiped the tears away and put her hands on her mother’s shoulders. “Is Ama still here?” 

“No, she left an hour ago. She made you lasagna.”

“You aren’t joining me for dinner?” Glinda pouted.

Larena shook her head and touched her cheek. “Sorry, darling. Your dad and I have a business dinner planned. I thought you were going to the _Sint Maarten_ celebration with Elphaba?”

“Yeah!” Glinda cheered up at the thought. “I’ll meet up with them at seven.”

“Better get moving, then.” Larena patted her lower back and Glinda hopped off her lap. 

She stuck her tongue out. “It’s still two hours away. If you wanted me gone, you could’ve just said so.” 

“Hmhm,” Larena smiled and put back on her reading glasses. “As if you aren’t going to take all that time to find the perfect outfit.”

Glinda looked down at her clothes and knew she _definitely_ didn’t want to be in these clothes when she told Elphaba. “Oz, you’re right. I can’t wear this!” She ran out of her mother’s office and yelled. “Don’t tell Ama the good news, I want to tell her myself!” 

\--

Glinda rang the Thropp household’s doorbell, and listened to the instant chaos that ensued. She heard Nessa’s muffled yelling and Elphaba yelling back from the first floor. Footsteps stormed off the stairs and moments later the front door clicked open.

“Hey,” Elphaba smiled and gave her a light peck on the lips. “You’re just in time, I was about to lose it.”

“I doubt that, it takes a lot for you to lose it." She stepped into the hallway and could smell the faint air of spices that Glinda had come to learn were part of Quadling cuisine. “I’m not interrupting dinner, am I?”

“Nah, we finished. Our ventilation system just sucks.”

Shell came running in the hallway, his yellow gloves soaked in water and soap. “Hi, Glinda!” He said with a blush on his cheeks. “Fabala said you’re joining us tonight?”

“Yeah! Are you excited to go?”

He glowed. “I convinced dad I could get a torch instead of a _lampion_ this year!”

“Shell, come back here at once! We’re not done with the dishes yet!” Frexspar’s stern voice came from the kitchen.

“Oops, gotta run.”

Elphaba rolled their eyes as Shell sprinted out the hallway. “See what I have to put up with on a day-to-day basis?”

But Glinda liked the liveliness of the house that was so different from her own. She knew that deep down, Elphaba liked it too. Their annoyance was more a front than a genuine response. If anything would happen to either Shell or Nessa, they would be the first to help them out. 

Glinda greeted the rest of the family as they sat down in the living room. Nessa was fussing about Nanny needing to wrap the coat on straight; it was dangling too loosely off her shoulders. Frex and Shell were cleaning the dishes, and Shell was enthusiastically reenacting a recent football match while Frex grumbled to clean faster, as he didn’t want to be _that_ family who was late for the event.

It never ceased to amaze her how much could happen at once. As everyone was busy amongst themselves, Glinda thought it was best to mention it to Elphaba now before she chickened out later.

“Hey.” Glinda nudged them a little as they were putting on their shoes. “When we got a moment to ourselves, I need to tell you something.”

Elphaba looked at her curiously. “Something good?”

Her eyes twinkled. “Yes, very. But I’ll tell you at the bonfire, okay?”

“Hmm, now you got me curious.” Elphaba wiggled their eyebrows, making Glinda laugh. They threw an arm around her and sighed dramatically. “ _Fine_ , I guess I’ll have to wait.”

“It will be worth the wait, I promise.”

\--

The Thropps were an odd bunch together. Sure, on a superficial level there was the green oldest child and the sister with no arms, but Glinda didn’t mean ‘odd’ like someone just passing by would. Every personality in the family just seemed to clash. Shell, who was always painted as the normal one, had already run off with one of his friends. They both were so excited to carry a torch this year. Then there was rebellious Elphaba with a soft spot for their family, old woman Nanny who was hovering around Nessa at all times and had been the Thropp caretaker ever since Elphaba’s mother was born. Lastly, you had Nessarose and Frexspar who took Sint Maarten very seriously, to a degree the local priest probably didn’t even do. 

On their way to the meeting point, Elphaba confronted them how Sint Maarten is about acceptance of others, and how in this century that would be acceptance of minorities. Something the unionist church had a particularly bad track record with. 

“Well, _I_ am disabled and they have accepted me! There is a flaw in your narrative, Fabala. Unionism is open to those who open up in return.”

“If that were the case, they wouldn’t have turned their back on me when I came out as queer!”

Frex, who was walking at a steady pace up front the pack, muttered, “Please lower your voice, we’re almost there. People might hear you.”

“See!” Elphaba pointed at him.

Nessa rolled her eyes. “That’s just Father wanting to be perceived as presentable. Regardless, my point stands. We’re fine with you and Glinda, aren’t we?” 

Nessarose pointedly looked at Glinda, who was less than thrilled to now be involved in this conversation.

“Broadly speaking, I do think Elphaba has a point. At large, unionism has a long way to go.” Glinda constructed her sentence as carefully and non-threateningly as possible. 

“Whatever, you’re biased.” Nessa shrugged off her comment. 

Glinda raised her eyebrows, and Elphaba scoffed.

“Funny how _Glinda_ is biased but you think you aren’t. Of course everyone loves you! Compared to _me_ , your older and green and “ _monstrous_ ” sibling, you are an absolute godsend, arms or no arms.” 

Nessarose huffed. “You always make it about _your_ experience, Fabala, which is exactly what Sint Maarten is _not_ about!”

“Enough, you two!” Nanny brashly interjected. “I won’t put up with your nonsense bickering this evening.”

Elphaba was fuming and Glinda took their hand and gently squeezed it, telling them it was not worth it. They dropped the argument and only started to relax when the _optocht_ was in full swing and Nessarose was on the other side of the crowd. 

The marching band was loud and playing only half of the time off-key. Little children had their homemade crafted _lampions_ and Frex had already taken away Shell’s torch, as he and his friends were sword fighting with them. 

Glinda raised herself on her tiptoes to whisper into Elphaba’s ear. “Do we have to sing the entire way to the bonfire?”

“It’s tradition, I’m afraid.”

“But it’s the same song _over and over again_.” 

Elphaba smirked. “Just fake it like I do.”

She fell silent, suddenly wondering if Elphaba was faking more than they let on. When arguing with Nessa, they had called themself monstrous so casually, Glinda had barely noticed it. Was that really how Elphaba saw themself?

A packed crowd like this was hardly the place to raise a personal subject like that, but Glinda couldn’t help herself. “You don’t think you’re _actually_ monstrous, do you?”

Elphaba looked confused by the sudden shift in the conversation. “What?”

“When talking to Nessa, you…”

With the signal of the whistle the percussion rounded off their interlude and the other instruments started playing the same song they had been playing the entire way to the park. Children were the only ones still singing, and a few adults reluctantly joined in too.

Elphaba looked at her strangely, and if Glinda hadn’t been watching them intently, she wouldn’t have noticed how subtly they readjusted their expression. “Why would I think that?”

Glinda had a habit of overanalyzing other people’s behavior. Elphaba had difficulty talking about their feelings as is, and this wasn't the time to be discussing this. So she shook her head, smiled at them and let the remark for what it was. After all, they were almost at the bonfire, and she had her big news to share.

The crowd arrived at the local park and the bonfire got carefully lit. A firetruck was already on standby to ensure everything went safely. Some children threw their torches in the bonfire and everybody chatted as the burning warmth of the fire lit the place. Once the fire had been going for a bit, Glinda nudged Elphaba and they walked away from the crowd. The person nearest to them was a middle-aged lady who was standing a couple of meters away, and Glinda deemed it safe enough to talk.

Now the moment had finally arrived, her nervousness bubbled. “So, I said I had some exciting news.” 

“Yeah, I don’t think I’ve seen you so excited before.”

“Well, you know I had an appointment with Yackle today.”

“Oh, I haven’t asked yet, how did that go?” 

“Let me finish,” Glinda couldn’t stop smiling and she took their hands. “She said I can already be put on the waiting list, as long as I have my surgery when I’m legally an adult.”

“Surgery,” Elphaba repeated, their smile widening. “You mean _the_ surgery?”

“Yes!” Glinda nearly jumped up in joy. “Elphie, I’m finally getting my bottom surgery!”

“Oh my god. Oh my _god_!” Elphaba was in a state of shock and excitement. And Glinda swore it was the first time ever she heard them squeal. They wrapped her in a firm hug and lifted her off the ground, spinning her around. Glinda yelped in delight at their spontaneous action. The woman nearest to them, looked at them with mild curiosity, but Glinda paid her no mind.

“My girl is getting…!” They slowed down and gently placed her back on the ground. “Oz, you must be so relieved.”

Tears had sprung in her eyes. Thinking about the surgery that she had wanted for so long was overwhelming. “Do you know what this means, Elphie?” Glinda replied in a whisper. “I could get surgery next year. Maybe before university, if I’m lucky.”

Elphaba smiled from ear to ear. “The final waiting period has arrived. I’m _so_ happy for you, Glinda!”

“Can you imagine? I’d never have to tuck again in my life,” Glinda sighed happily at the thought. She threw her arms around Elphaba. “No more stress in changing rooms or missing out on sleepovers. A body that actually feels like my own? The thought! Is this what cis people feel all the time?”

Elphaba chuckled. “You’re asking pretty much the only other trans person in all of Colwen Grounds.”

She smiled and pecked their lips. “I cannot wait to be eighteen. Now it’s getting so close, I’m only growing more impatient.”

“Just three more months till you become an adult.” Elphaba smiled.

Glinda rested her head against their shoulder and her cheeks started to hurt from smiling. “Yes, and I’m counting down every day.”


	3. Pakjesavond

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Dutch Dictionary:**  
>  _Pakjesavond_ : I explained Sinterklaas last time, so yes this is The Day of Sinterklaas: pakjesavond (presents’ evening). This is where children get their presents and since this happens on December 5th and Santa Claus is derived from Sinterklaas, most families in the Netherlands either choose one of the two holidays to gift presents. That absolute vast majority does Sinterklaas though, especially if your children are still in elementary school.  
>  _Pepernoten_ : “peppernuts”. Hearty candy we eat during the Sinterklaas period.  
>  _SE week_ : School Exam week. In the higher classes of high school, there will be four weeks in which all of your exams are given. Usually this happens before a break (autumn - winter - spring - summer). 
> 
> Oh, I should warn you: the sprinkle of angst starts this chapter.

“You sure you don’t want me to wait for the bus with you?” Elphaba asked for the third time in a row. They were sitting on their bike, one foot firmly on the pavement.

“Yes, I’m sure. You should be with your family tonight.”

“As should you,” they pointed out.

“I know you’re making a dig at my parents for never being home enough.” Glinda tugged a little at the sleeve of their jacket. “And it’s not _not_ appreciated. But you know I already celebrated _Sinterklaas_ last weekend at my grandparents’. I’m okay, Elphaba. Really. We always do presents with them in Gillikin.”

“I still think your parents should be at least home with you tonight,” Elphaba muttered under their breath.

“And _I_ think you are stalling so you end up waiting with me for the bus anyway,” she teased.

They smirked charmingly. “Can you blame me?”

“Go be with your family, I mean it.” Her eyes found theirs. “You mentioned how _pakjesavond_ is pretty much the only holiday you enjoy spending with your family. We can enjoy each other’s company any other day of the year.”

Elphaba gave in with a sigh. “Alright, you make a good point. So, what’s in store for you this evening?”

“Hmm,” Glinda pretended to ponder for a moment. “I guess I might eat myself sick with _pepernoten_.” 

“Solid plan.” They leaned in and kissed her goodbye. “I’ll see you tomorrow then. You start first period too, right?”

“Yeah, I got maths D. Now go,” she chuckled and poked them in the ribs. “You’re already late.”

Elphaba pecked her cheek, and before taking off they said: “Don’t get crazy with the candy!”

\--

Glinda had a very relaxing evening planned. Ama Clutch had left her some dinner that she could easily warm up and gave her a richly decorated chocolate letter ‘G’. She had to promise Ama she would only eat the chocolate after she had eaten her dinner. She breezed through tomorrow’s homework and the evening was hers to spend. 

Sprawled across the couch, she had put on the soap opera she knew Ama liked to watch. Glinda didn’t really care about the show itself, but she loved chatting about it with Ama the next day over a nice cup of tea. Their theories were always wild, but never as ridiculous as the actual plot was. 

Her phone lit up and Glinda furrowed her brow when she saw who messaged her.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/142883458@N07/48650137457/in/dateposted-friend/)

Glinda opened up the app to look at the image. Her breathing shortened. The file attached was of a document she was all too familiar with.

“No, no, no, no, no.” Glinda panicked. “I thought I -” She furiously tapped at the screen, wishing, _hoping_ , this wasn’t real. In rapid speed Pfannee sent five other images. A scanned document with her dead name on it. Screenshots of an online forum her former classmates used to gossip about her. A leaked toddler photo with a particularly boy-ish look that her grandmother had foolishly posted five years ago.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/142883458@N07/48649995821/in/dateposted-friend/)

Tears dropped on the screen. Black dots danced around her and her breathing got cut off. Her phone fell on the carpet and she sank through her knees. She gripped at the edge of the coffee table.

“I-I can talk - s-so I can breathe - I can…” She shut her eyes. Her whole body was shaking. The spinning in her head got worse and she gasped for air. She reached for her phone and ignored the messages pouring in. With a trembling hand she searched for the number and hit the call button.

The tone rang and Glinda tried to count her breaths, as Yackle had taught her to do. It took a couple of rings before she heard the soothing voice of Ama Clutch. 

“Duckie! That cliffhanger was really something, huh?”

Glinda searched for words but nothing came out but a loud sob.

The tone in Ama’s voice shifted. “What happened? Is everything alright?”

“A-Ama, it-t-h-h-happened a-again,” she stuttered through her tears.

There was a short pause at the other side of the line. “I’m on my way, duckie.” Ama groaned as she got out of her comfortable chair and Glinda could hear her searching for her keys. “Do you want me to stay on the phone until I’m there?”

Glinda wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Just c-come, please.”

“I will be there in fifteen, okay duckie? You don’t go anywhere now.” More rummaging from the other line. “Did you call your parents yet?”

“No.”

“I will call them too, if that’s alright. After we hang up I’ll be driving there and call your parents, okay? You don’t have to worry about anything.”

Glinda nodded. “Okay.”

On the other side Glinda heard Ama’s front door open.

“Ama…” Glinda gripped at her phone and shuttered out a breath. “Thank you.”

“Anything for you, my duckie.”

\--

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/142883458@N07/48649638808/in/dateposted-friend/)

Glinda didn’t have the heart to tell Elphaba last night. As much as she wanted them near, she would feel awful interrupting the one night a year they liked spending with their family. But she most certainly could not bear to tell them now. She didn’t want to tell anyone at all. She wanted to spend the rest of her life hiding in her bed, where she couldn’t get hurt.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/142883458@N07/48649995956/in/dateposted-friend/)

Elphaba knew, and perhaps Glinda no longer had an excuse to avoid them. What could she do? The news was out. Everyone at school now knew she was transgender. And from the glimpses of the messages she had gotten, things hadn’t changed much. Her phone was on a do not disturb mode - only messages from Elphaba and her parents could make it through. So when her screen lit up with Elphaba’s name she sent her first and only response that entire day.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/142883458@N07/48649995916/in/dateposted-friend/)

\--

The doorbell rang and Ama opened the door. Even upstairs, Glinda could tell the other voice belonged to Elphaba. She hadn’t been able to get out of her bed, though she did exchange her pajamas for the comfortable sweats she used as weekend wear. 

Footsteps came up the stairs and there was a hesitant knock on the door. “Glinda?” The door slowly opened and Elphaba peeked their head in. “Hey. Ama Clutch let me in, I hope that’s okay.”

Glinda found her voice. “Yeah, I told her you were coming.”

They smiled relieved and gingerly put their backpack next to her desk. “I’m really glad to see you. When you didn’t reply I got so worried. How are you feeling?”

“Like I’ve swallowed the sun and there’s no more light left in the universe.”

“Dark,” replied Elphaba. “A bit surprised that came out of your mouth instead of mine.” 

Glinda felt herself smiling at the teasing remark.

“But understandable.” They made their way to her bed and lifted the blanket so they could crawl under it.

“You know Ama is still here, right?” Glinda said alarmed.

Elphaba rolled their eyes and scoffed. “Ah yes, because between the two gender dysphoric teenagers, one of whom just got brutally outed, we are totally in the mood to bang it out. Jeez.” 

Glinda let out a laugh at how disgruntled they sounded. “You’re right. No way in hell am I doing anything before my surgery.”

“Exactly,” Elphaba agreed and put the blanket up to their shoulder. “We both have complicated relationships with our body and neither of us is ready to be having sex. Therefore, I am allowed to lay next to you in bed, and if any cis person has anything to say about that, that is their shit to deal with.” They looked over their shoulder if the door was still closed. “Though don’t tell Ama Clutch I said that, she can be scary.”

Glinda pretended to lock her lips with a key, surprising herself with the playful gesture. With the realization of the blissful moment it instantly collapsed, her thoughts going back to the night before. “H-How was school?”

“How much do you want to know?”

Glinda swallowed. “Honestly? I don’t want to know anything at all. But I’ll have to at some point, so it might as well come from you.”

They nodded. “Well, as you might expect, news travelled fast. The original anonymous post got taken down, but y’know, damage being done and all, that didn’t really matter. People gave me some snarky comments, but what else is new. Some were confused and were clearly only talking about it because everyone else was. Pfannee made a loud remark in Dutch about it, but that quickly got shut down by the teacher. She did get detention, I thought you might like to hear that,” Elphaba listed off.

Glinda only listened with half an ear, her mind flashing back to all the other times she got bullied for being trans. All she could think was how she would have to go back to school eventually and hear every nasty remark for a fourth time. Why did this keep on happening? Her face went pale and her breathing shallow.

“Hey, wow.” Elphaba took her shoulder. “Breathe, Glinda. Deep breaths.” 

Glinda shook her head and tears fell from her cheeks. “I-I-I c-can’t do thi-is again, E-Elphie.”

“Yes, you can. I know you can.” They held her tight and looked her firmly in the eyes. “And you know why I know? Because you stood up for _us_ , so you’re able to stand up for yourself. Oz, Glinda, can’t you see how much you’ve grown the past years? It will take so much more to fall as deeply as you did before.”

Glinda looked at them with tears in her eyes, and whispered, “I’m still scared.”

“Who wouldn’t be? But you don’t have to face this alone. I’m here and I know Boq’s got your back too. You got Yackle for professional advice and no way in hell Crope or Tibbett would let the bullying get as far as it happened in Gillikin. You’ve got a team behind you this time.” 

“I know.” Glinda rubbed her eyes. “But how the hell can I go back to school if I’m too afraid to even read messages on a phone?”

“What messages? Which asshole texted you?” Elphaba reached over their shoulder and fumbled for Glinda’s phone on her nightstand.

“Many. I’ve not looked at a single text except yours.”

“What about your parents?”

“Ama talked to them yesterday. They cut their business trip short, but they won’t be back till tomorrow evening.”

“Alright, you unlock your phone.” Elphaba handed over the device. “Then I will go through every message, and delete and block where necessary.”

Glinda frowned and hesitantly typed in the code. “Isn’t that avoiding it?”

“I’m not going to hand you razorblades so you can cut open old wounds,” Elphaba said much softer than Glinda had anticipated. “These messages are only meant to hurt you. You think those idiots at school cared about what they were sending? Of course not. So you don’t need to read shit.”

It wasn’t like she was desperate to read all the awful things people had to say about her, so she handed over her phone and Elphaba went to work. With a swift hand they went through all her WhatsApp messages and then did all her social media. 

“Let's see, on our ally list are Milla and Boq. Pfannee and Shenshen are completely blocked because holy shit, they didn’t hold back. Couple of randos got their messages deleted and - oh, you just got an email from Crope. Should I open it?” 

“Go ahead,” Glinda said. “What does it say?”

Elphaba’s eyes quickly scanned the screen. “He says he tried to call you but you didn’t answer - that tracks. He wants to have an appointment to discuss what happened, but isn’t available until seventh period. Normally he would cancel one of his classes but due to the approaching _SE week_ he can’t drop anything. Isn’t your last class at fifth?”

“I think so.”

“Should I reply?”

Glinda felt her stomach turn. “Yeah, tell him I’ll come seventh.” 

Elphaba typed up a simple message and let Glinda approve it before sending it out. She barely looked at it, already regretting what she had agreed to.

Her face must’ve been a dead giveaway, because Elphaba put the phone away and gently stroked her hair. “Tomorrow’s going to be hard, I know. But delaying the inevitable will eat you from the inside.”

“I just keep imagining what they’ll yell at me. Planning how little I should drink so I won’t have to go to the toilet at school. The last time I got outed I had to resort to using the teachers’ restroom.”

Their eyes softened. “You’re hurting nobody by using the girls’ bathroom.”

“But they might hurt me.” Instantly Glinda was back at her last school, where a bunch of girls waited her up in the bathroom, blocked the entrance, and pushed her head under the sink while water was running until she nearly choked. 

An arm got wrapped around her and Glinda felt the memory drift away, feeling secure in the warm embrace. Elphaba was close and she heard softly whispered in her ear: “I’ll glue myself to your hip if that’s what it takes.”

More than anything, Glinda willed it possible. With Elphaba by her side she felt so much more capable. At times, it seemed like Elphaba wasn’t afraid of anything. Glinda knew that to be a ruse, but oh how much she could use those skills right about now. 

All she could do was keep safe in Elphaba’s arms; wishing tomorrow would never come.


	4. Transformation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Dutch Dictionary:**  
>  _Piepjestest:_ is just a different name for the shuttle run test - or PACER test. For some reason in Dutch we call it piepjestest because it makes little beeps (piepjes) and we’re basic like that.  
>  _OLC:_ open leercentrum. Basically an open study hall. This was part of a previous dictionary but I thought I’d just refresh everyone’s mind. 
> 
> **Warning(s):** As you might suspect, there is a lot of transphobia in this chapter. Lot of trauma, lot of bullying and descriptions of panic attacks. But don’t worry, light will return to us. Push through like Glinda ♥.

Elphaba had joined Glinda on the bus ride to school. Yesterday they had come up with a battle plan. The biggest obstacles were going to her French class and gym. For the latter they had decided to head to the fields early and change before anyone else had arrived. French was trickier because neither Elphaba nor anyone on the ‘ally list’ took French, but Pfannee and Shenshen did. Here was hoping the teacher would stick up for her if needed.

Aside from a few minor comments and a lot of staring, first period went by fine. The real challenge began during French. Elphaba had class the opposite side of the building and couldn’t walk Glinda to class. To her horror, Glinda found out the teacher hadn’t arrived yet. She silently took her place at the back of the class and busied herself practicing the list of words at the end of the chapter. 

In the corner of her eye, she saw Stefan watching her with a smug grin. When he knew he had her attention he turned to Avaric. “Yo, Avaric!”

“What?” Avaric stopped writing his very last-minute homework.

Stefan nudged his head towards Glinda. “Didn’t know you liked riding dick.”

Glinda’s mouth dried and her skin grew pale. Avaric turned in his chair and looked at her. Then he shrugged and continued filling in answers quickly before the teacher would come in. “Bitch, please. I know you masturbate to _My Little Pony_ ,” he casually replied.

Some boy howled and the girls that just entered giggled. Stefan’s eyes darted around the room, his face red with embarrassment. With his ego hurt, he needed a better comeback. Stefan pushed himself out of his chair and walked up to Avaric. “What did you say, mate?”

Avaric didn’t pay him much mind. “I said piss off.” 

“Oh, so you gay now?” Stefan slowclapped, clearly trying to create a show for the audience he had gained. “How _brave_ of you to come out like that. A faggot all along.” 

Avaric cracked his neck and slowly stood up. “Are you blind, dude?” With his full height, Avaric easily had a few centimeters on Stefan, making Avaric look much more intimidating. “Glinda’s a girl.”

“A girl with a _dick_.” 

Avaric shoved Stefan in the wall and instantly the boys were at each other’s throats. They both got a good few punches in before the teacher came rushing in.

“WHAT IN _LURLINE’S_ NAME IS GOING ON HERE!?”

She pulled the boys apart and looked at them furiously. “Whatever this alpha macho display is I want _none_ of it in my class! You’re both going to explain yourselves to the dean. The rest of you,” she looked at the class. “Begin your next assignments. Joris, you’ll make sure everyone stays quiet and _seated_.” 

She dragged the two boys out of the room and Joris sat down hesitantly at the teacher’s table. The excitement of the fight had dwindled down and most students went to work. 

Glinda couldn’t bring herself to concentrate. She felt sick to her stomach over what had transpired. Did Avaric stand up for her or was he just salvaging his own image? On the one hand, she was grateful she hadn’t been the target, but it had still been about her. She wasn’t sure if she preferred it.

While the teacher was still gone, Shenshen and Pfannee threw not-so-subtle glances over their shoulders in Glinda’s direction.

“Must be something,” Shenshen murmured loud enough for her to hear. “Having two boys fight over you like that.”

Glinda bit back her tears and bowed over her homework. More than anything, she wanted to vanish from the face of the earth.

\--

As soon as the bell rang for the first break, Glinda and Elphaba made their way to the gym fields. Having the locker room, to themselves they quickly changed into their sports gear and ate their lunch outside. It didn’t matter to Glinda that it was cold. At this point, she’d take heavy rain or snowfall over changing in front of the other girls. 

They helped Ms. Greyling set up for field hockey, as running around a lot would “keep them all warm”. Glinda didn’t understand why they just couldn’t have class in the local gym hall, but Ms. Greyling happily informed her that next week they’d be going inside for their final _piepjestest_. It was only then that Glinda realized that would be the last gym class she’d ever have to attend. 

_Just two more and I’ll be released from ever having to share a locker_ , Glinda thought relieved. 

With some help from Elphaba, they explained the situation to Ms. Greyling (who said all teachers had already been informed by Crope) and managed to ensure Glinda could leave five minutes early. 

By now their classmates made their way onto the field and Ms. Greyling started class not long after. Glinda did notice that both Avaric and Stefan were not present and assumed they were still at the dean’s office. No fights broke out and no nasty comments were swung in her direction. Pfannee and Shenshen didn’t pay her any mind and seemed to have stepped back from targeting her. It wasn’t as if they were suddenly cool with it, but at least they let her be. 

Gym ended with a match, and Glinda was incredibly grateful that Ms. Greyling picked the teams. This way she didn’t have to know if she was going to be picked last if two of her classmates had to choose. 

Five minutes before time Ms. Greyling had subtly given her a signal that she was allowed to go change. Glinda made her way over to the locker room and felt her muscles relax as she walked away from her peers. The only class that was left today was chemistry and then she had to wait till seventh for her appointment with Crope. Her parents would land this evening and she would have their support from home. Today was doable. 

However, when she walked into the locker room, she knew something was wrong. The bench under which she had left her bag of clothing had disappeared. Her heart beat rapidly in her chest and her eyes frantically searched the room. Her bag was nowhere in sight. 

With a trembling step she traced all the bags under the benches, clinging to the hope she was being delusional. Her feet halted in front of Elphaba’s bag, which her bag was supposed to lie next to. It was gone. 

Her head turned woozy and Glinda reached for the wall in fear of fainting. Her breathing went high and short and the years of bullying flashed before her eyes. With every memory, three words kept repeating in her mind: _It happened again. It happened again. It happened again._

Outside, she heard exhausted voices and footsteps come nearer. The period had ended. Glinda rushed to the toilet and locked the door. She sat down and planted her feet on the seat and wrapped her hands around her legs. As tears were streaming down her face, she tried to focus on one of the many breathing exercises she had practiced with Yackle.

The door of the locker room opened and muffled voices poured in. It didn’t take long at all before the conversation was about her. 

“Oh _good_ , the gross man knows he isn’t welcome here.”

“Pfannee, what the _fuck_ ,” a second voice scolded her. Glinda had difficulty matching the voice to a face, as it was too high to be Elphaba’s. “What are you, the genitalia police? She’s shared a locker room with us for _four_ years and you never made a fuss!”

Glinda listened breathlessly to the conversation. _Milla_. It was Milla who was standing up for her.

Shenshen chimed in. “That’s because we didn’t know its dirty little secret.”

“ _IT?_ ” Milla spat out. “Fucking _really_!? You people are disgusting!”

“You’re only on her side because you had a huge crush on her!” Pfannee yelled defensively. “Just because you don’t mind humping freaks doesn’t mean _we_ can’t be concerned for our safety!”

“If you’re talking about Glinda...” Elphaba’s voice coldly demanded everyone’s attention. They must’ve been the last to enter the locker room because Glinda could hear the door closing, shutting off all miscellaneous noises from outside. “Keep in mind it’s none of your business. Whatever is in her pants is only relevant to Glinda and whoever she’s dating. Which is me. So unless any of you is volunteering to have a threesome..?”

The rudely put question shut everyone up. Even in the bathroom Glinda could feel the tension in the air. She could only imagine the various shades of red the girls had flushed. The drawn out silence made it clear Elphaba was boldly making eye contact with every single girl in the room. 

“Didn’t think so.” 

Elphaba’s footsteps made it to the bench and people started rustling through their bags. Even though it was quiet, the tension hadn’t left the room. 

Glinda wiped the tears from her face with a shaking hand. She couldn’t leave the bathroom now; she had to wait it out until everyone had left. Elphaba would wait for her, that much she knew. They would go to chemistry together and Elphaba would spend sixth period with her in the _OLC_ and would make sure she would go to her appointment with Crope unharmed. 

Glinda clenched her teeth and gripped her legs tight. She longed for this to be over, but knew from years of experience Pfannee wouldn’t let go that easily.

“All I’m saying,” Pfannee spoke up after the long stretch of silence, “if she wasn’t ashamed of being born a man, why didn’t she just come out and say so?”

“Because she feared you were going to react _exactly_ as you have!” Elphaba snapped. “You absolute fucktwats proved her point! So don’t you _dare_ blame this on her. This is on all of you, on whoever leaked that shit in the first place, and how you all dealt with this information. It wasn’t yours to share, and it certainly wasn’t your place to judge. I knew you were fucking monsters by the way you’ve treated me all these years, but outing someone like this? That’s a new fucking low.” 

The room exploded. Every girl argued and yelled and threw accusations at Elphaba and Pfannee and, after mere seconds, anyone and anything. Conversations overlapped and the volume rose louder and louder. Glinda’s hands were pressing her ears into her skull and tears were falling from her cheeks. Hearing even another second of this was unbearable. She was the cause of this, she was the one who made all of this happen, and she wanted out.

With a shuddered breath she unfolded from her position and unlocked the door of the toilet, slowly pushing it open. It made a squeaking creak and the arguments dropped. Glinda shut the door carefully and only focused on the door ahead of her. Thirty steps. Give or take thirty steps and she would be out of this locker room and out of this mess. With her gym clothes still on and her mind on the target, she stepped forward.

All eyes were on her. Twenty more steps. Fifteen. She didn’t lift her feet properly and her gym shoe made an awful screech across the tile flooring. Glinda flinched, but pressed forward. Fourteen more steps. It was all that mattered. She was _so_ close to the door she could almost reach for it.

“Well?” Pfannee demanded and Glinda tensed. “Don’t you have anything to say for yourself? Or is your guarddog speaking for you now?”

Glinda cursed Pfannee in her brain and halted her step. Her head snapped towards Pfannee, and her puffy eyes saw red with anger and pierced right through her. Her body visibly trembled. She was sick of it. She was so _fucking_ sick of this. Not even the fourth time was the charm. It was the same fucking bullshit all over again.

The voice that came out of her was nothing like her actual voice. It was low and dangerously calm. “ _Burn in hell, Pfannee._ ”

She stalked towards the door and pushed it with the palm of her hand. The door swung open and clattered against the brick wall and bounced back. Glinda caught it and slammed it shut with such force it made the windows tremble. On the other side of the wall she heard the surprised yelps.

Glinda ran as far away from the building as possible. She got down a path and ran into the forest. She ran full force until she hit a fence and collapsed to her knees. Her breathing dragged fast and heavy and tears fell into the grass. She wailed through the pain. Her nails dug in the ground and a visceral growl, coming from the depths of her body, reached her lips. The loud cry rang through the forest.

She gasped for air and choked on her sob. She was afraid of not getting enough air through her lungs, but couldn’t stop crying. Another agonizing scream built up inside her and she felt veins pop and her vocal cords ripped as she let it out.

Spit dangled from her lips. The weight of her own body became too much. Her shaking arms sank in the dirt and her head crashed in the soft soil. Her sobs were so loud she hadn’t even noticed someone had approached her, until the familiar touch of a warm hand got placed on her back, and Elphaba knelt down next to her.

“I’m here,” they said, and brought her face from the dirt into the comfort of their lap. “Let it all out, my sweet. I’m right here.”

With their nimble fingers they combed through her hair, removing bits of dirt and grass she hadn’t even realized had gotten mixed with her golden curls.

Glinda gasped for air. “I _h-h-h-hate_ t-t-t-hi-is b-b-bod-d-dy!”

Elphaba took her hand. “Squeeze as hard as you must. It needs to get out, Glinda.”

So Glinda squeezed, she sobbed and squeezed until her knuckles turned pale and she felt an imprint of her nails in the palm of their hand. Exhausted, she let go and panted and swallowed to prevent herself from damaging her lungs forever.

“Don’t fight it,” Elphaba whispered. “That’s only going to hurt more.”

But there wasn’t more left inside her. She hyperventilated, her eyes were hurt and burnt from crying, her mouth tasted like vomit and her throat was sore from screaming. The gentle touch of Elphaba combing through her hair helped her focus on something beside the agonizing pain that had built up inside her. Slowly, the storm faded. 

One by one, it was as if her senses came back to her. She heard the rustling of the leaves, the excited yelling of another class at gym. Sounds that must’ve been there all along, Glinda realized. Closest to her, she heard something else; the soothing hums of a melody.

She blinked her eyes open and the deep brown eyes of Elphaba looked back at her. They smiled and the humming stopped. “Hey. How are you feeling?”

“Like garbage.” Glinda groaned and lifted her head up. 

She sat down next to Elphaba and they handed her a bottle of water. “Drink. You’re dehydrated.”

Glinda still felt the wet stains on her cheeks. She drank half of the bottle in three gulps and burped afterwards. “Shit.” She covered her mouth and dabbed her wet lips. “Sorry.”

“All good.” Elphaba rummaged in their bag and handed her some sort of protein bar. “Your body needs this too.”

Glinda shook her head. “I’m still nauseous.”

“You’re nauseous because you just had gym and then an emotional breakdown. Look at you, you’re still shaking,” Elphaba said as they opened the package and planted it in Glinda’s hand. “Eat. Your body needs food.”

Reluctantly, Glinda nibbled at the bar and soon enough realized Elphaba was right and ate two more and drank the bottle empty. 

“Got anything else in that magical sack of yours?”

Elphaba chuckled. “Well, I did make sure to grab your sweater before running after you. Thought you might get cold.”

Glinda put on her sweater and only realized with the warmth of the fabric how cold she had gotten. It _was_ December after all and they were outside of all places.

“Boq found your bag in the boys’ locker room, by the way. No perpetrator stepped forward yet, but I have my suspicions. For now your bag is with Ms. Greyling.”

“Ms. Greyling?” Her brain caught up slowly. “Wait, what time is it? Aren’t we late for chemistry?”

“It’s okay. Milla is relaying the message. We got time.”

Glinda nodded. She wrapped her arms around her freezing legs and put her head on her knees. She concentrated on her breathing, which had gotten a lot steadier. If not for Elphaba, she didn’t know how she would’ve snapped out of that.

“How do you know all that stuff?”

“Hm?”

“The stuff you did. It’s like you knew exactly what to do.”

“Comes with having a sister with no arms, I guess,” Elphaba said simply. “This isn’t the first time I’ve seen someone break down.”

Glinda looked at them with concern. “That must be scary.”

“A bit, yeah. It’s mostly scary because you feel so helpless.”

“You couldn’t have been more helpful.” 

Her eyes widened and she grabbed the hand that she had squeezed. She gasped as she saw the deep mark of nails left there. “Oh my god, I’m _so_ sorry!”

“It looks worse than it feels. It’s what I used to do with Nessa, whenever she had a tantrum. She used to get those a lot when she was younger. My teachers were really concerned by all the bite marks she left on my body. I doubt actual doctors would approve, but it always helped her calm down.” They shrugged. “So yeah, I thought it might help you too.”

She listened attentively and with her finger traced over the marks. “It did, weirdly enough. Because you’re forced to focus all your attention to one point. You’re no longer all over the place.”

“Yeah, it’s like giving your mind and body a task to work on together. I’m sure there are better renditions of this, but this is what I knew.”

Elphaba fell silent and watched as Glinda drew patterns in their palm. Glinda slowed down her movement, and then stopped, lacing their hands together.

“You feel good enough to go back to the lockers?”

Glinda knew all her classmates were long gone by now, but the mention of the locker room made her shudder. But sitting in the dirt was not an option either. “I guess so.”

“Hey, look at me,” Elphaba said calmly. “I am _so_ proud of you, Glinda.”

She scoffed a little. “For what? Running away like a coward? Having a breakdown in actual dirt? Oz, I’m filthy.” She rubbed some dirt off her knees.

“For showing up at school today. For plowing through all that bullshit that was thrown at you. For facing your actual worst fear head on. Today was going to be terrible and hard, and you did it anyway. That’s courage.”

“I couldn’t have done it without you. Seriously,” she added when Elphaba looked like they were going to protest. “You made all the difference.”

Elphaba smiled and planted a kiss on her forehead. “I might be the pillar, but you were the one carrying the weight.” 

\--

It was nearing five o’clock when Glinda left the meeting with Crope. They had talked a long time about what happened during gym and how to proceed forward. Tomorrow during English, Crope would dedicate the lesson to everything that happened the last few days. It scared Glinda to have an entire lesson devoted to trans issues, but she trusted Crope with the topic.

As she crossed the _OLC_ she saw that in the otherwise empty building one student was doing homework.

“Avaric?”

He looked up at her and Glinda saw his right eye was swollen up and a purple bruise covered his cheekbone. 

“Wow. Stefan hit you that bad, huh?”

“It’s okay, I got an icepack if it starts hurting again.” He looked at her for a bit. “I doubt I got punched the hardest today.”

For a second, Glinda thought he meant he was bragging about hitting Stefan harder, but the uncharacteristically gentle tone made her realize he was talking about her. 

“I heard what Pfann and Shen pulled in gym. Such a dick move.”

Glinda swallowed and pushed down the heavy emotions that welled up. “It’s not like this was my first time, Avaric.”

His eyes widened. “It’s not?”

“It happened three times before in Gillikin. I don’t feel like talking about it.”

“Yeah, no. Of course.”

“What about you? Why are you still here?”

“Have to stay till five. Got two day’s suspension. Stefan too. Turns out you can’t just stay at home. You’re expected at school at eight, can’t go to classes and do boring administrational stuff until five.” He rubbed his chin and flinched when he accidentally went over his bruise. “Anyway, it’s fine. I would do it all over if that shitbag talked to you like that again.”

Glinda let the words sink in. Avaric wasn’t protecting his image after all, he was protecting her. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Shoot.”

Glinda nervously rubbed her arm and sat down next to him. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I mean, we dated briefly in second grade. And I don’t recall you ever showing any knowledge about trans issues.”

Avaric shook his head. “No, you were right. I didn’t know that stuff back then.” He looked around the _OLC_ and saw they were still alone. “You remember my sister? She must’ve been pregnant when we were dating.”

“Yeah, I believe I met her.”

“Well, her child, my niece, most precious thing on earth, Alicia, is her name. And uhm, she’s like you. Born a boy, but… she’s not. I know she isn’t. She’s only four, but she has always felt like a girl. At first I didn’t know how to respond, but now? Alicia as a boy would feel so _wrong_ to me, no matter the body she has.” Avaric looked flustered by the topic. “A-Anyway, I’m not going to pretend I know what I’m talking about. But I know girls like you and Alicia are, uhm well, girls.”

It felt like the millionth time today that tears welled up in her eyes. “I knew at that age too,” Glinda smiled. “I hope the rest of your family supports her too.”

Avaric nodded. “Yeah, they do. It took some time for most of us to wrap our heads around, but nobody is purposefully saying the wrong name. If it happens, it’s by acci- whoa, are you crying?”

“Yes,” Glinda laughed and brushed her tears away. “I’m okay. I’m just really happy for her. One person accepting you can make such a difference. I wish I could say something really encouraging here, but the reality is…” She shrugged a little helplessly. “Well, the reality is what happened today.”

“I swear to god if boys are going to act like that to Alicia, they got another thing coming.” He tensed up and bawled his fist. “Like what if she gets a boyfriend and he’s going to lash out like Stefan did? O-Or girlfriend, I don’t mean - of course, well you know.” He gestured awkwardly to her to acknowledge her relationship with Elphaba.

“Anyway, when that post leaked I thought back to when we dated and all I could think of was how I must’ve made you uncomfortable. Like, we didn’t _do_ stuff but I tried pushing you in that direction, didn’t I?” 

He looked at her expectedly, his eyes desperately searching for the right answers.

“Honestly?” She held her breath. “Yes, that was one of the reasons I broke it off.”

“Fuck,” he mumbled and nervously hit the pen against the paper repeatedly. “Like, how can I know the friends and stuff she makes aren’t going turn on her the moment they find out? _All_ of our school saw you as a girl, until that document leaked. And suddenly they needed to bitch about it. I don’t want the same thing happening to Alicia.”

“Well… _You_ changed, didn’t you?” Glinda replied simply.

The pen stopped hitting the paper. “I guess.”

“Then you got to trust others will too.” She briefly touched his arm. “For now let her be a child without having to worry about all of that. And if it does happen, make sure you’re there for her.”

“You’re right.” He smiled a little to himself, in a shy manner. “I get to be the dragon whenever she plays princess. It’s ridiculous. I’m crawling on the floor and everything, pretending to defeat other dragons and witches and trolls in her honour. And when evil is defeated she gets to fly on the dragon to greet her kingdom - which is basically just me giving her a piggyback ride.” 

His smile faded and he stared off in the distance. “I just want to be a good uncle to her.” He shook his head. “Anyway, I should at least _pretend_ I’m taking this suspension seriously or else they might give me another day.”

“Of course, I need to get to my bus anyway.” Glinda checked the clock behind her and then looked at him for a moment. “Thanks for sharing that. It’s clear you deeply care about her. I’m sure Alicia knows that too.”

They said their goodbyes and she left him at the table. She was halfway through the _OLC_ when Avaric spoke up.

“Yo, Glin?”

She turned around. “Hm?”

“I know I can’t do much about the girls. But if any of the guys talk shit again, just let me know, okay? I got dirt on all of them. Enough to shut them up.”

\--

On the bus ride home, Glinda did not know what part of the day to process first. How all of this happened in one day and hadn’t made her magically combust was a goddamn miracle. At home she would call up Elphaba and tell them about what she discussed with Crope. But for now she sent them a single text:

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/142883458@N07/48650137387/in/dateposted-friend/)


	5. Lurlinemas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Dutch Dictionary:**  
>  _Christmas:_ here is mostly about spending dinner with family, as most do presents on December 5th. That’s all, just an elaborate dinner with fun lights and wintery decoratives.  
>  _Winter:_ despite what you might think, we don’t get many cold winters. Sometimes a year goes by without it actually snowing and it’s not that common when snow stays for even a few days.

After three long weeks, winter break had arrived. Glinda could not be more relieved to spend two weeks without her classmates. Though nothing substantial like her first day back had happened, she was careful in her approach. Last week, during the _SE week_ , she had had little contact since they only had to take exams. But going to school itself was enough cause for frequent anxiety attacks.

She did not have to worry about any of that for the next two weeks, but other worries surfaced in their stead. The big one was tonight: Lurlinemas. Her extended family would come visit Munchkinland and her mother was preparing a massive five course dinner. It would also be the first time Elphaba would meet her extended family. 

Glinda came in prepared and emailed everyone ahead of time. That way her family wouldn’t start asking questions about why they were green or misgender them, which Elphaba would be too uncomfortable to correct.

The doorbell rang and she hurried downstairs. Elphaba stood on the front step, looking more nervous than Glinda had seen them in months.

“Hey, I’m not too early am I?”

“No, it’s better you’re here before the family arrives.” Glinda stepped on her toes and greeted them with a kiss. “My mother is ridiculously stressed, though. Don’t make any sudden movements around her.”

Elphaba laughed. “Noted.” 

They went inside, and out of habit walked to the closet where the coats were hung up. Except, the closet was completely empty. “Uhm...? Where are all your coats?”

“Oz, right. Mom didn’t want it to be cluttered. All our coats are on a spare bed upstairs.”

“Oh, okay. Where should I leave my coat, then? Should I keep my shoes on or off?”

“Shoes off for now, but on when the guests arrive. You can leave your coat on my bed.”

Elphaba looked confused by the many rule changes. “Am I allowed to move or...?”

Glinda giggled and took their hand. “Come, maybe we can help around the house.” 

They headed towards the kitchen where her mother was in three different states of stress. She was stirring some sauce, looking up the recipe in a giant book and had a knife in her right hand to cut up vegetables. Ama Clutch was spending her Lurlinemas with her sister, nieces and nephews, but it was still a weird sight to see her mother instead of Ama.

“Mom?”

“Yes, darling?” Larena replied without looking.

“Uhm, Elphaba is here,” Glinda added hesitantly.

Larena looked up and her posture immediately shifted to hide her stress. “Oh, Elphaba, how wonderful of you to come.”

“Hi, Mrs. Upland. Thank you for the invite.”

“Can we maybe help with something? You seem… busy.” 

“Last thing I need right now is attitude, young lady,” her mother snapped back, making Glinda flinch.

“Oz, I only thought I’d ask.”

Larena stopped stirring and sighed. She rubbed her forehead. “You’re right, I shouldn’t have lashed out. But your father and I have this under control, alright?”

“Okay. Just let us know if you do need our help. We’ll be in my room.”

Larena hummed and had already turned her back on them. When they got out of the living room and Larena could no longer hear them, Elphaba said, “Wow, you weren’t kidding about your mom.”

“Don’t worry, it happens during Lurlinemas. Even when she isn’t preparing dinner, she’s mad at what I’m wearing or tells dad he brought the wrong wine. I swear, if I ever start behaving like that, you have to let me know, okay?”

She looked behind her, their hands still linked as they walked up the stairs. “And _don’t_ tell me I’m already like that! My mom is _way_ worse.”

Elphaba smiled and planted a kiss on her knuckles. “I didn’t say anything.”

Her room was very clean in comparison to the state it normally was in. Her mother had forced her to clean it for Lurlinemas. When Glinda pointed out her family probably wouldn’t even go upstairs to see her room, her mother rattled something off about manners and the aura of a clean house.

“I need to finish my make-up if that’s okay with you?”

“Yeah, go ahead.” Elphaba shrugged off their coat and started unlacing their boots, not the worn-out ones but the good-looking pair, Glinda noticed. They really had done their best to dress up.

Glinda put on some bright red lipstick while Elphaba looked around her room for a bit. They took a snowglobe off her shelf and studied it.

“By the way, remember the job opening in the retirement home?”

“Hmhm.”

They shook the snowglobe and watched the little flakes twirl around. “They offered me the job.”

Glinda looked up from her vanity table. “Really!? Oh my god! That’s so cool, Elphie.”

They smiled proudly. “I’m actually excited, can you believe it? It’s like two or three times a week. It’s mostly checking up on elders, but it’s the closest to the medical field in this town. Not that I could do a lot without a degree if a hospital was nearby.”

“It’s still experience. And a job. Does it pay well?”

“Just above minimum.” Elphaba placed the snowglobe back on the shelf. “I’m just glad they hired me despite my skin condition. Especially since I will have to interact with people.”

Glinda giggled. “You’ll have to do small talk! Oh no, those poor elders.”

Elphaba made a face.

“You got some conversation starters ready?”

“I don’t need a conversation starter, I _am_ one.”

Glinda put another coat of lipstick on and smacked her lips together. She opened up a drawer and checked out the many earrings she could wear, the final touch. “Oz, two to three days, though? That’s going to cut into the time we spend together.”

“I’m not going to neglect you,” Elphaba said. “If it’s up to me, that time gets cut from family.”

“Hm, I don’t know. Seems to me I’ll soon have to compete with some sweet elderly woman.” Glinda winked.

They laughed at the idea. “Seducing me with cookies. Yeah, I can see that.”

Elphaba fell silent all of a sudden and Glinda watched them through the mirror for a bit as she put in her earring. They were tapping their foot and fidgeting with their hands. 

“Everything alright, Elphie?”

“Oh, I’m only going to meet your entire extended family during a very formal dinner. No big deal.” Elphaba said in a rush and scratched their head. “I’ve no idea what I’m doing. I grabbed this pullover from Frex’s closet. I’m pretty sure he used to wear it during church.” They sniffed it. “Yeah, it even smells like church.”

Glinda put in the other earring and studied their outfit through the mirror. They were wearing black pants, a dark blue pullover and a white collared shirt underneath. “Don’t worry, you look cute.”

“ _Cute?_ ” Elphaba deflated and slumped back on her bed. “Oh no, I made the wrong choice, didn’t I? You call me handsome or attractive when I’m dressed well.”

“Look at you, psychoanalyzing my words,” Glinda teased them, as she smoothed out her dress and checked her complete look in the mirror. This would have to do. She would put on the white cropped jacket when her family arrived.

“I-I can go back home and change. We never had a Lurlinemas dinner and I definitely didn’t have a girlfriend before so I was grasping at straws and -” they were muted by Glinda, who had turned to them and planted a kiss on their lips.

She laid her hands on their shoulders to calm their anxiety. “Cute is _perfect_ for a family Lurlinemas dinner. It tells my relatives you’re charismatic and kind, but not a douchebag who thinks they can waltz into a wealthy Gilikin family and demand respect. They’re going to adore you.” 

Elphaba visibly relaxed. “If you say so.”

“I know so,” she said and when she looked at Elphaba’s mouth she tried to keep a straight face. “Unfortunately, when I kissed you I forgot I’d put on _very_ smudgy lipstick and now you look kinda ridiculous.” Glinda burst with laughter.

“Oh, really?” Elphaba touched their lips and grinned. “Well, since you already messed up, all I’m hearing is I can get some extra kisses.”

They pulled her closer and Glinda’s heart fluttered. Their eyes met and the contact felt electrifying. Elphaba leaned in and wrapped her in a big kiss. Glinda felt herself smiling and with her eyes still closed, lingered on their scent.

“And just so you know,” Glinda muttered against their lips, “cute still means you’re _very_ attractive.”

\--

Later that night, when dinner was finished and they had said their goodbyes to the family, Elphaba and Glinda cleaned the last few pots and pans by hand. The dishwasher was filled to the brim and already chugging. At Glinda’s insistence, her mom and dad had settled on the couch with a glass of wine. 

“Shell just texted.”

“Yeah?”

Elphaba swung the towel over their shoulder, headed to the nearest window and looked behind the curtain. “Oh dang, he’s right. It _is_ snowing.”

Glinda dropped everything and leaped towards the window. The lightest of snowfall was drifting from the sky. It must’ve been snowing for a while, because the ground was covered in as little as a centimeter of snow. 

“Shell asked if we wanted to go sleighing.” 

“At this hour?”

“It’ll be gone by tomorrow morning. It’s barely under zero.” 

So they cleaned the rest of the dishes and hurried outside with the sleigh that was stored somewhere in the attic. Shell would meet them at the sound barriers, which were the only things even remotely considered to be hills in Colwen Grounds, even if they were artificially built.

Shell went down the hill first with the wooden sleigh he brought on his own. Despite the hour, and a scolding from Elphaba afterwards, Shell let out a shriek of pure joy. They watched him as he climbed back up the hill.

“I’m happy we get to end the day like this.”

Glinda smiled. “I know my family can be a lot. But I’ll keep repeating it if I have to: they loved you. You wowed them with your academic knowledge. I’d even go so far as to say you’re a natural at this.”

Elphaba scoffed, and Glinda detected the dark blush just above their scarf. “Hours earlier you pitied the elderly.”

“They’re lucky to have you.”

Glinda could tell Elphaba was not used to getting heartfelt compliments. They bowed their head and brushed off the snow that had fallen onto the sleigh. 

“You wanna go together?”

“Oh, I’m not going down this hill alone. That’s for sure.” 

She sat down promptly on the front of the sleigh and Elphaba settled in behind her, wrapping their arms around her middle. 

“It was really nice meeting your family, Glinda.”

“It was,” she agreed, and snuggled even closer into their arms. “But I’m glad I have you all by myself again.” She could tell they were smirking. 

Much closer to her ear than she anticipated, Elphaba said. “Are you ready?”

Glinda nodded and Elphaba planted their feet firmly on the ground and took off. Shell cheered from the sideline as they dashed past him.

As they sled down the hill, Glinda’s stomach leapt with excitement. It felt warm and comforting and all kinds of fluttering. It was an emotion she had grown familiar with these past months. Wrapped in Elphaba’s arms, she finally could grasp the exact words to the feelings that had been lingering inside her for months.

She was deeply and truly in love.


	6. Wizomania

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Dutch Dictionary**  
>  _Efteling:_ the Efteling is the biggest theme park in the Netherlands and is ingrained in Dutch culture. It opened a few years before the first Disney theme park, and focuses - amongst others - on fairy tales. It’s a family friendly theme park with just a couple of rollercoasters. The landscaping and theming is absolutely beautiful and one of the best you’ll ever see in theme parks. Just to be safe though, I’ll be referring to the theme park Gelphie goes to as ‘Wizomania’, but rest assured, it’s very much the Efteling.  
>  _Sprookjesbos:_ literally ‘fairytale woods’. This was the first part of the Efteling that existed and can still be visited to this day. There are no rides, but you walk around a path and can see all kinds of fairytales told in Dutch (enacted by mechanics). Red mushrooms can be sat upon - gentle music plays inside of it - and pretty much every child who has visited the Efteling has a photo of themselves sitting on one. It’s incredibly charming and no visit to the Efteling is complete without it.  
>  _Krokusvakantie:_ literally crocus vacation. It’s what we call spring break, but here it is usually around February/March and coincides with ‘carnaval’ in the southern parts, which hits off the Catholic fasting period.

Glinda couldn’t believe it: she was standing inside the Wizomania theme park! She hadn’t been here since she was little and was delighted when Elphaba asked her to come as an early birthday gift. She thought _krokusvakantie_ would be boring, but only standing in the entrance of the park, she knew this would make her entire week.

The past month in school had been fine. They no longer had gym class, so there would be no repeat of last year’s nightmare. It seemed the holidays had cooled everyone’s head and the topic hadn’t really been brought up again. Maybe it had to do with the _centraal examens_ looming closer. Stirring drama between groups of friends didn’t seem all that important anymore. They would have their last official school day in April, and after exams they’d go to college. Chances of people going to the same university, let alone the same bachelor, were incredibly slim.

This was the final stretch and Glinda could feel it. She was almost free of high school and she could focus on what was really important.

“Quite busy at the stand, here you go,” Elphaba said and handed over the cup of tea and little bags of sugar.

“You’re an angel,” Glinda replied and let the hot beverage warm her hands. “Where to? You know this park better than I do.”

“Since it’s early, we can do some of the popular dark rides first before the line gets too long. I’m not sure how strong your stomach is for rollercoasters?”

“Maybe in a bit.”

“Alright, we’ll save them for later in the day. On peak hours we should head in _sprookjesbos_. Then we get to see a lot without feeling like we’re wasting time.”

“Sounds good to me.”

They got into a few dark rides and, because the ride was so beautiful, they rode _Droomvlucht_ twice. It was every bit as gorgeous as she had remembered as a child. The fluttering music, the fresh smell of the thousands of flowers in the forest where the fairies lived. It was her absolute favorite part. 

Before lunch they headed to the nearest rollercoaster and while they were still standing in line Glinda asked them, “Do you know if pictures get taken on this ride?”

“Yeah, it’s immediately on the lift hill.”

Glinda leaned with her hands on their shoulder. “Ooh, we should totally come up with some silly poses!”

“I don’t know, Glinda. Those pictures are expensive.”

“We don’t have to buy it. It’s just for a laugh.” 

They shuffled further down the line and from the look on their face, Glinda could tell Elphaba was not feeling it.

“Another time, okay?”

Glinda nodded as she didn’t feel like pushing the matter. She had almost forgotten about it until they walked out the exit and passed the many screens where everybody’s on-ride photo was depicted. While everybody else took at least a quick look at their picture, Elphaba almost made a straight beeline, ignoring the wall completely, and headed outside.

During lunch, tucked away in a corner booth, Glinda decided to confront them about it.

“I’m just not that big on photographs,” Elphaba replied between bites. 

Glinda dipped a piece of bread in her soup. “But you didn’t even _look_ at it.”

Elphaba shrugged. “I know what I look like. Why would I keep photographs of myself? Seems shallow.”

She looked them over and placed her hand over theirs. “You know you don’t have to put up a front with me, right? I know what it’s like to hate your own body.”

It looked as if they got slapped. Elphaba lowered their gaze and turned quiet, and Glinda regretted bringing it up. But then, their expression changed, and Elphaba laced their fingers together. With a hint of a smile in their voice, they said: “That transparent, am I?”

“We’ve been dating for about nine months, I’d like to think I know you by now.” Glinda squeezed their hand and added softly, “And it’s not like this was the first time I noticed.” 

“When did you?”

“I don’t know, they’re casual comments that slip into your speech. Like, your argument with Nessa during St. Maarten. You called yourself ‘monstrous’ without even blinking.”

“Huh.” Elphaba sat back in the booth. “I guess I did. But I -” they frowned. “It’s not like I really _mean_ it, y’know?”

“But it doesn’t come from nowhere, either.”

“I know,” they sighed and let the conversation sink in. “Well shit, that totally ruined the mood.”

Glinda frowned. “For what?”

Elphaba let go off her hand and ducked down under the table to rummage through their bag. “I had this whole thing planned during lunch. I wanted to give you something, since your birthday is in four days.”

“What are you on about? This trip _is_ my birthday present from you.”

Elphaba chuckled and came back from under the table. “Yeah, I didn’t think I’d get away with that, honestly.”

She raised her eyebrows in amusement. “Oh? You think I’m that demanding, do you?”

“Your words, not mine.” They gave her a wink and planted a small, wrapped box in front of her. “For you. Happy early birthday, Glinda.”

Glinda was speechless. “You know you’re invited to my birthday party, right?”

“But it won’t be just the two of us. Today is.”

As a response Glinda kissed their cheek. She couldn’t help it, they were being very cute. 

She took the gift and carefully unwrapped it. The tiny box indicated some sort of jewelry and the logo was from a family owned local shop in Nest Hardings. She clicked it open and inside of it was a necklace with a tiny heart.

“This is so cute!” Glinda gasped. She took the necklace and put it around her neck. “Can you clip this on for me?”

“Sure.” Elphaba pushed some of her hair to the side and helped close it. “I still have the receipt, because I’m not familiar with jewelry and stuff. It’s okay if you don’t like it.”

“Don’t be silly,” Glinda smiled and kissed them. “I _love_ it. Thank you so much, Elphie.”

A blush had crept on Elphaba’s face. “As soon as I got hired at the elderly home, I promised myself I’d spent my first paycheck on you.”

“Are you kidding me? I knew you had a cute side, but this…” She was at a loss for words. The only sentence that could possibly describe everything she was feeling in this moment was right on her lips. 

That’s when she spotted a tightly folded note that had fallen out of the box. She picked it up and looked at Elphaba. “Is this part of your gift?”

Elphaba’s face flushed. They quickly nodded and nervously took a long sip from their tea. Her interest was piqued and Glinda unfolded the note. She read it three times over.

_You know I’m not always the best at expressing how I feel._  
_And if I have not made it clear yet through my actions,_  
_I want you to know that I am very much in love with you._  
_Your Elphie_

Tears had sprung in her eyes. She whispered the words that had been so long on her mind, “I love you too.”

She looked up and met their eyes. It was so easy to say. Why did she ever think this was going to be hard? It was the easiest sentence she had ever said. “I love you too, Elphie.”

Elphaba smiled from ear to ear. They wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer. They stole a kiss, being mindful of the several people entering, as lunch hour was at its peak.

“You’re the best datemate I could ask for.” She booped their nose. “You’re really spoiling me today.”

Elphaba shied away from her gaze. Not in shame, but Glinda knew they sometimes had difficulty with extended eye contact, especially in intimate moments like these.

“You’ve had an awful few months.” Elphaba stroked her waist with their thumb. “It was about time someone spoiled you.”

Glinda pecked their cheek one last time and shuffled back to her seat. The restaurant really started to get packed and she could tell they were getting overwhelmed. Elphaba hadn’t been able to look anyone in the eye since their confession and they were quietly eating the rest of their lunch.

Glinda drank the rest of her soup before it turned cold and glanced every now and then at Elphaba, completely content eating lunch in silence. After they finished, they left the busy restaurant with filled stomachs. The paths were beautiful to walk on and they made their way to _sprookjesbos_ for their afternoon stroll. 

“Thank you for everything just now.” Glinda gently swung their intertwined hands. “I’m sorry for ruining your very romantic confession by bringing your baggage into it.”

Elphaba shook their head. “If anything, it confirmed my feelings for you. You take good care of me, Glinda.”

She beamed the entire way to _sprookjesbos_ and had a light skip in her step. The fairy tales depicted were just as charming as she remembered. When they passed one of the red mushrooms Glinda jumped up excitedly.

“Oh we should totally take a -” she abruptly stopped and grew embarrassed. “God, I’m sorry. We _just_ talked about this. We don’t have to if you don’t feel comfortable.”

Elphaba hesitated for a moment. “Let’s do it.”

She looked up in surprise. “Really? I don’t want to force you.”

“I agreed of my own will. Besides...” Elphaba chewed it over. “Could be good exposure therapy?”

“Okay.” 

She looked around the path. “Oh, that one over there has better shading.” 

She wanted to walk towards it but got stopped by the hand holding on to Elphaba’s. They stood still in the middle of the pathway.

“Glinda I-” they stared at their linked hands. “I don’t know how to smile in pictures.”

“Then… we don’t smile.”

They furrowed their brow. “But - don’t you kinda have to?”

“No? You can do whatever you want in photographs. If it comes easier to you, we could do grumpy faces just fine.”

Elphaba laughed at the idea. “I might just manage that.”

They picked out one of the red mushrooms and Glinda sat down on Elphaba’s lap. They pulled a couple different faces in a row and then burst out laughing checking the results. As Glinda swiped through the collection a second time, Elphaba grew more and more quiet.

“Oz, I look hideous,” they mumbled.

“Absolutely not, you look handsome,” Glinda replied instantaneously and zoomed in on one of the photos. “You have a strong jawline and your eyes are real dark and mysterious. Look at your hair! It’s shining so nicely in this light. And I know you don’t really like your skin, but I think it’s so nice, Elphie.”

She clicked and turned off the screen and buried the phone in her hands. “I don’t like much about myself either, so I remind myself about the things I _do_ like about my body. Like my curls, I really like them. And my long eyelashes. I have cute toes, too. I tend to paint them even when it isn’t summer. Just for myself, you know?”

“I like my hands,” Elphaba said quietly. 

“Yeah?” Glinda took their right hand and traced over it with her fingers. “What do you like about ‘em?”

“They look strong. Not typical girl hands, but they’re not very masculine either. I always found them very non-binary looking, if that makes sense.”

“I love that description. You do have real nice hands.” 

Elphaba nuzzled her shoulder. “Hey Glinda? I kinda cheated because I haven’t said it out loud yet, but, I love you.”

“I love you too.” Glinda smiled.

Elphaba kissed her sweetly. “Can I have your phone real quick?”

“Sure.” She handed it over. “Why?”

“Yours has a better camera.” 

They framed the angle and the moment they snapped the picture, Elphaba turned their face and kissed Glinda’s cheek. She giggled in response and it made the photo all the more genuine. It was Glinda’s new favorite picture. Even Elphaba couldn’t deny the smile depicted on their lips had a certain charm to it. 

It was the picture they both ended up saving as their lockscreens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to ride _Droomvlucht_ (Dream Flight) you can [click here](https://youtu.be/qpJQ5HgFjHY). While it's much more beautiful in person, this video shows a fraction of its beauty.


	7. One Short Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be posting a chapter every week starting in December, with the final chapter on Christmas Eve! :D  
> \--  
>  **Dutch Dictionary:**  
>  _Sprinter:_ a ‘sprinter’ is what the biggest train company in the Netherlands calls stop trains. So trains that stop at every little station imaginable. In contrast to an ‘intercity’ which travels between larger cities.  
>  _Open Dag:_ ‘open day’ otherwise known as open house. A day schools open their doors for potential new students and give glimpses of courses, study material and the overall campus.  
>  _Studielink / DUO:_ Is our national government-operated website where your higher education is processed. This is where you apply to a bachelor (or master) and arrange your benefits like free use of public transport (either weekdays or weekend) and your monthly loan to pay for housing and other school equipment.  
> Borrels: Is like getting drinks but it’s very student / uni specific? A borrel usually is done by student associations and depending on the sorority, can be on a set day once a week or at random.

“ _Dear travelers, next stop’s Shiz. You can transfer here for the intercity in the direction of Traum leaving from the other side of the platform. Or you can catch the sprinter towards Lake Chorge departing at 10:52 on platform one. This train will continue towards Dixxi House, Red Sand, and final destination, Mount Runcible. Next stop, Shiz._ ”

“That’s us,” Elphaba said and grabbed their coat and backpack. 

Glinda followed suit and they soon were standing in the cramped hallway with a dozen other passengers. The train slowed down and someone pushed the yellow button and the doors swung open. Everybody poured out and Glinda had no other choice than to follow their step. 

Standing on the platform, she took a moment to orient herself. As busy as it had been mere seconds ago, the wave of people had now vanished down the stairs. 

“Didn’t expect it to be this busy on a Saturday,” Elphaba said in surprise.

“Right? Should we just follow the stream of people? I see no other exit.”

They looked out for the big blue signs in the station and followed the direction towards the city centre. Glinda instantly fell in love with Shiz. Seeing the city, it was no surprise to her the university was the oldest in the country. The buildings were typical of the Gillikin aristocratic style over four centuries ago. Little canals ran across the entire city and the many bridges were incredibly charming. 

They walked across the city for about fifteen minutes until at the end of the street they could see the faculty of science, which was one of the newer and more modern buildings of the area. It became clear to Glinda why it had been so busy at the train station; most people were here for the _Open Dag_ too. They had to sign up weeks in advance and managed to schedule the two bachelors they were most interested in.

At the entrance, a student asked for their names and looked up their sign ups in the iPad she held. “You signed under Upland, correct? Oh, seems you’re early. The introduction to engineering will take place in 1.07, on your left in 45 minutes. Until then, you can check out the little market with different student associations near the faculty’s cafeteria.”

“Sounds nice,” Glinda smiled. 

“Let me quickly get this form for you here.” The girl leafed through the alphabetized papers on the desk and handed them both a copy. “This is your schedule for the day, all information is on here. If you have any further questions, there are students inside walking around in similar t-shirts as mine who are happy to answer any questions you have.”

“Thank you so much,” Glinda thanked her for the both of them.

“Alright, have a great day at Shiz university!” The girl wound up the conversation and instantly moved on to the people next in line.

Glinda and Elphaba walked inside and her mouth nearly fell open at how big the space was. “Lurline, we’ll be attending a school this _huge_?” 

Elphaba chuckled. “My, such a country girl you are.” 

She nudged them in their ribs. “Careful, you. I can still change my mind and attend Qhoyre university instead.”

“Swamp city? You would run away screaming within a week.”

Glinda opened her mouth to protest but then closed it again. “ _Fine_ , I guess you’re stuck with me for another four years.”

“Oh? Haven’t I told you I already made my decision? I’ll be attending CMU next year.” Glinda felt her heart drop, and Elphaba continued. “I mean it’s close to home, so I don’t need to move out. I can stay with my family like I want to and go to church every Sunday…”

Glinda let out a relieved laugh and felt her muscles relax. “Oz almighty, you had me going there for a moment. Don’t _ever_ joke about that again.” 

Elphaba cackled and swung an arm over her shoulder. “I couldn’t help myself. Were you actually worried?”

“Worried we’d end up on different ends of the country? Yes, of course that worries me, Elphie.”

“Oh.” Their smile faded at her serious tone and they dropped their arm. “I had no idea.”

“I didn’t mean it like that, it’s just…” Glinda felt her cheeks flush. “I imagined us being together at Shiz is all. I’d hate to let go of that.”

“You don’t have to.” Elphaba took her hand and rubbed her knuckles. They gave her a smile. If the hall wasn’t completely crowded Glinda would’ve leaned in. She let go of their hand instead.

“You wanna check out those stands she mentioned?” She asked. 

“Sure.”

It was a small little market with five to ten stands promoting student associations or other activities. One stand was covered in rainbows and pride flags. Elphaba was immediately drawn to it.

“Do you mind if I go take a look...?”

“Go ahead.” 

Elphaba made an immediate beeline for the stall and Glinda browsed the other stands before joining them.

“... We actually are in the process of transforming a few toilet stalls genderneutral in the existing buildings. Oh, hello. Are you interested in the university’s LGBT network too?”

“Oh no, I’m with them,” Glinda smiled politely and pointed at Elphaba. “Are you done here?”

“Not yet,” Elphaba said and turned back to the guy behind the stall. “So, you’re doing both? Advising the school _and_ organizing queer-centered lectures?”

“Among others, yes. We also have monthly _borrels_ in the local gay bar and someone in the team is studying film theory, so ze organizes screenings from time to time.”

“That’s so cool! Can I already sign up somewhere?”

“Gosh, Elphaba -” Glinda raised her eyebrows at that “- I love your spirit! Although we’re in the middle of the semester and - have you graduated yet?”

“I haven’t.”

“Okay, so after you’ve graduated and enrolled at Shiz, we’ll happily take you on board. There’s stalls on the infomarket during the introduction week where you can sign up. Unlike student associations, there is no fee and attendance is voluntarily.”

“It really does sound amazing. At our school we don’t have anything like this.” Elphaba finally looked back at Glinda. “Brrr gave us a golden tip. We need to register for _duo_ housing now so a few years down the line when we want to live together, we won’t be waitlisted.”

Glinda didn’t know what to react to first. How long had she been at those other stands? It couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes. Had Elphaba shifted to a different dimension where they had talked to this guy whose name was apparently _Brrr_ (what kind of name was that anyway?) for multiple hours and became fast friends? Since when did Elphaba talk about her to random strangers? She couldn’t quite recognize the person that was standing beside her.

“Honestly, I wish someone would have mentioned it to me when I started. I’m doing my master’s and I’m still waitlisted. Go figure,” Brrr replied with a laugh. “Oh well, that’s life. If you want you can take this pamphlet with you and read everything over at your leisure.” 

He handed one over to Glinda as well, who only took it so she wouldn’t come across as rude. Brrr was perceptive as he picked up on her hesitance. “Just read it over, you don’t have to register at the beginning of the year. You can join whenever and if life gets too busy you can drop out again. No obligations.” 

“Uhm,” she furrowed her brow. “Yeah, sure. Elphie, we should go.”

“Right! The lecture!” And Elphaba turned to the guy. “Well, maybe till next year, Brrr!”

“Isn’t this cool?” Elphaba said excitedly as they walked away from the stalls.

Glinda looked over her shoulder to see if Brrr was still paying them attention and then asked sharply, “You mentioned me?”

“Oh I mentioned a girlfriend, that’s all.” Elphaba waved off. “That really was a good tip though. We should register both at _duo_ tonight so we double our chances in like two or three years.”

Absentmindedly, Elphaba reached for Glinda’s hand as they were reading over the pamflet, but she avoided the gesture and stuffed her hand in her pocket. In her other hand she was still holding that stupid rainbow covered pamphlet. She handed it over to Elphaba, who raised an eyebrow. “I don’t want my parents to find it,” she mumbled unconvincingly.

“They know you’re dating me,” they pointed out. 

“Yeah, but this is like activist stuff. They’ll be afraid I get involved with marches and protests.”

“Alright then,” Elphaba said flatly and stuffed the folders in their backpack. “Honestly, you came across pretty rude. You were acting as if Brrr was holding you at gunpoint.”

“Oh I’m _sorry_ ,” Glinda hissed through her teeth. “I didn’t know I offended your new best _friend_!” Her voice carried at the end and she quickly scanned the hall to see if anybody had noticed their argument.

“What’s with you? You won’t hold my hand, get weird around pride flags. Are you really that ashamed to be seen as queer by the world?” 

She crossed her arms and looked away.

“Because that’s what you _are_ , Glinda.” Elphaba moved closer and tilted their head to meet her gaze. “Why can’t you be proud of that?”

“Really, Elphie?” Glinda looked at them sharply and she blinked away tears. “You can be so _fucking_ insensitive sometimes.”

She stormed off to the nearest exit and ended up on a side street where a bunch of bicycles were parked. She moved away from the door and stood with one foot bend against a brick wall. Elphaba followed soon after.

“Hey,” they spoke up hesitantly and rubbed their neck. “Is it okay if we talk?”

Glinda shrugged and Elphaba took it as the best sign they’d get and slumped against the wall next to her. The breeze hit the tears on Glinda’s cheeks and with her eyes she followed a girl and her parents passing by.

“I’m not saying this to be dismissive or a dick,” Elphaba said slowly when the family was out of earshot. “But I don’t understand why you got upset. Could you explain it to me?”

From their tone of voice, Elphaba was genuinely inquiring what they had done wrong. Ideally, Glinda had wanted Elphaba to know what her reasons were the moment she stormed off. But she couldn’t exactly hold them to an impossible standard where they could look inside her brain. At least not when they were trying their best to understand.

“Has it ever crossed your mind,” Glinda said, her voice wavering, “that getting outed four times in a row has left me with some damage?”

Elphaba awkwardly planted their hands against the wall. “Of course, it has. But what does that -”

“That’s why I’m hesitant to join those groups, Elphie. I’m _terrified_ people will discover I’m trans. Once I’m in uni, I can’t exactly run away to a different school. If I get accepted, I’m pretty much stuck at Shiz. And if I join a LGBT group, I’ll only enhance the chance of people finding out.”

“Okay, but those networks are there exactly for that reason. To create a safe place where you won’t have to deal with that judgement. See, _that’s_ what I don’t understand. People like Brrr are nothing like Pfannee or Shenshen.”

She wiped the tears from her cheeks and took a breath. “Yeah, maybe, but I won’t be waving a pride flag any time soon, alright? It’s just not for me.”

“But-”

“Listen to me, Elphie,” she said as she took their hand. “I love you and I love how you can be so passionate about these issues. I really am proud of you. And the larger community needs people like you to push society forward. But I’m just trying to live a goddamn _life_ , because lord knows it has been ripped away from me before.”

Elphaba turned quiet. “I still think it’d be good for you if you did join eventually, but, I get it. I get why you’re scared. If I were you and had your experiences, I’d be too.”

Another group of people walked by and Elphaba checked their watch to see what time it was. “We got ten more minutes, by the way.”

“Okay.”

Elphaba drummed their right hand lightly against the wall and spoke up once more when they were alone: “Maybe I got a little insecure when I saw you retreating, because you’ve never really mentioned any specific labels for yourself. I thought that, maybe, you were starting to doubt who you were and that meant…”

“I wouldn’t want to be with you?” Glinda filled in their worries.

Elphaba’s hand stopped and they bowed their head. “Yeah.”

“Never.” 

They smiled a little as they looked at the tip of their shoes. “Turns out, you weren’t the only one fantasizing a life together at Shiz. But idiot that I am, I wasn’t even aware I was doing it. That’s how natural it felt to me.”

Her chest warmed. She leaned over and kissed their cheek. “That’s for being cute,” she said and raised their linked hands and kissed their knuckles. “And that’s for calling you insensitive, which was really stupid of me.”

They smiled at her. “I’m sorry too.” 

“Come,” Glinda said and she dragged them away from the wall. “We should stop being idiots and actually go do what we travelled two hours for.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** Just so you know, once Glinda gets over her fears in the years to come, she’ll be president of that very same LGBT network. ;)


	8. Cram City

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Dutch Dictionary:**  
>  _LSD:_ Last School Day (acronym works in English too, hurray!) is when the students in their final year ‘take over’ the school for one day. Fun activities are planned the entire day for the seniors - while the lower classes have to study as normal, RIP - and usually ends with like some sort of dinner or barbecue and perhaps even an unsupervised _kroegentocht_ (‘hopping bars’). Note that the legal drinking age in the Netherlands is 18 (used to be 16 in my high school days), so it’s not illegal or anything.  
> The takeover by the seniors usually involve just messing with classrooms (stacking up tables and chairs is a classic) and theming the building. Intensity varies, our year was considered pretty chill but I also remember a time seniors covered the windows of the teacher’s lounge with porn, so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ grain of salt.  
>  _Tussenuur:_ another reminder, a tussenuur literally means ‘between hours’. A free period.  
>  _OV-chipkaart:_ means ‘public transport chipcard’. It can be used on all public transport across the country. You ‘check in’ when you get in the bus/train/tram/metro and ‘check out’ once you’re at your stop. The amount you travel is the amount you pay.  
>  _Eindexamen:_ So here’s some more info on the final exams. It starts in May and lasts about two weeks. All students in our country (on the same level and who takes that course) will take the exact same exam. All exams take three hours (and you’ll definitely need all of that time). Afterwards, the answers will be made available online, though only multiple choice answers can really be checked because it’s hard to tell whether you got points for an open question. Both your teacher as well as a randomly picked teacher of an entirely different school will grade you, so the grading will go fairly.

Glinda had her hands in her hair as she stared at the complicated page of her chemistry book. The actual part that made final year so hard was creeping closer. Just one more week until _LSD_ and after that they had three weeks to study before _eindexamens_ would start. 

Her screen lit up and as soon as she saw Elphaba had texted her she dropped her work and grabbed her phone.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/142883458@N07/49091760967/in/dateposted-friend/)

Glinda felt her face heat up as she read the message. Her eyes were glued to the screen, weighing her responses. It would be so easy to flirt back, but experience taught her that would lead to a competitive match to see who could outflirt the other that lasted until the bell rang. There never really was a winner, just a furious blush on her cheeks that she had to try to hide. As tempting as that was, she probably _should_ make the wise decision and actually study for chemistry. 

“Glinda?”

She startled and immediately locked her screen. Her eyes grew wary when she saw who had called for her.

Shenshen was awkwardly standing next to her with a stack of papers in her hand. “Uhm, I could use some help getting these _LSD_ posters up?”

Glinda frowned. “You’re asking me?”

She hadn’t kept in contact with Pfannee and Shenshen after last year’s fiasco. Glinda had gotten used to their silent treatment and actually preferred it over keeping up some sort of forced friendliness.

Shenshen scratched her arm. “You’re the only sixth year around. It’s difficult handling both the tape _and_ the posters alone.”

Hanging up posters definitely beat cramming chemistry any day of the week, but she wasn’t that thrilled Shenshen of all people was asking her.

“I mean, I really need to work on my chemistry...”

“It will take like five minutes, promise,” she quickly added.

Still a bit wary, but feeling this was the fastest way out, Glinda replied, “I can help for a bit.”

Shenshen looked relieved. “Great, thanks Glinda.”

“Give me a sec,” she said and sent Elphaba a reply so she wouldn’t leave them on read.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/142883458@N07/49091558996/in/dateposted-friend/)

“Alright, where should we start?”

“Any high traffic places. The doors to the hallway is a good one.” 

Without much talk, besides giving some directions, they walked around the building and hung the posters up wherever they deemed fit. Glinda was eyeing Shenshen curiously, not entirely sure what to make of the situation. 

“So…” Shenshen started awkwardly. “You looking forward to _LSD_?”

“Sure,” Glinda said as she held one of the posters in place. “Interesting theme you guys picked.” The poster was printed on different colours of papers and in bold letters announced the _Movie Glamour_ theme. “I’m interested in what you planned with it.”

“A ton. We’ll probably be prepping all night before _LSD_.” Shenshen taped the poster to one of the pillars and they walked to the next place. “It’ll be fun though! There are worse ways to spend your time in school.”

“That’s certainly true.”

The conversation fell dead and after they had hung another poster Shenshen seemed desperate to keep some sort of conversation going. “Last week I rented my dress for _gala_.”

“Oh nice, what did you go with in the end?”

“Here, I’ll show you,” she said and got out her phone to show her some pictures she took. With all the extravagant frills, it was definitely a dress Glinda expected Shenshen would pick, but it looked nice on her. 

“You look good, Shenshen,” Glinda said with a smile. If they were still close, she definitely would’ve freaked out, but she couldn’t bring herself to that level of energy. Not after what they had pulled last December. Still, this had been the most they interacted since that day. “I would show you mine, but mom and I are going to shop for my dress next week. I did make some moodboards online, though, so I’ve got a general idea of what I want to wear.”

“Wouldn’t expect any different from you,” Shenshen said, not unkindly. “You’re gonna match with Elphaba?”

Glinda blinked in surprise at Shenshen’s acknowledgment of Elphaba - that wasn’t also some sort of backhanded comment. “I mean, they’ll be wearing a suit so I haven’t really thought about it. Maybe I can buy them an accessory that matches my dress?”

“You definitely should! You’ll be one of the few couples anyway.”

“I guess so. Aren’t there a few couples in HAVO 5?”

“Pam and Dirk are the only ones that are both graduates, I believe. Other couples are from different schools or years.”

“Right, I forgot not everyone is in the same year.”

They were almost back to where they started and they hung up the final poster. 

“That’s all of ‘em?”

“Yep.” 

That hadn’t been so bad. If Glinda chose to be hopeful, she’d even go as far to say Shenshen was trying to make some amends before their graduation.

“Well, I’m going back to cramming chemistry then.”

Glinda was about to walk back to the _OLC_ , but Shenshen halted her.

“Hey, uhm, Glinda?” 

Glinda looked at her curiously and Shenshen paused for a moment. It was clear she wanted to say something, but it all depended on whether she had the courage to say it out loud. Shenshen swallowed her words. “Thanks for helping me out.”

“Yeah,” Glinda said, a tad disappointed. “No worries.”

\--

 _LSD_ past them by and the three weeks of studying they got before the _centraal examens_ went by even faster. Before Glinda knew it, she was standing at the Colwen Grounds bus stop, on the Monday she had dreaded for so long.

“Morning to you, Glinda,” the bus driver smiled as she stepped inside.

“Oh! Morning Frank,” she smiled back and held her _OV-chipkaart_ in front of the scanner until it beeped.

“Best of luck with today’s _eindexamens_.”

He remembered! “That’s so kind! Thanks!” 

She sat down in her usual spot and heard Frank had put on her favorite radio station so she didn’t bother with headphones. She stared out the window and watched as the flat landscape passed her by. The song on the radio came to an end and the host started talking. Glinda listened with half an ear until the topic of exams was brought up.

“ _... And at nine all VWO-students across Oz will take their very first exam, which per tradition will be Dutch. While some HAVO-students will be bowing over geography and VMBO-students will start their first exam tomorrow. We wish all students the best of luck, and don’t forget our lines will be open at twelve sharp for any and all complaints. Is it too cold or too hot at your exam location? Is there too much noise you can’t cancel out? Was the exam too difficult? Let us know via call, text, or social media!”_

Glinda was anxious, to say the least. It wasn’t that she hadn’t studied hard enough, but that so much was determined by the _centraal examens_. Six years of high school education had lead up to this moment. Had it been enough? This year especially had had some real lows and real highs. She just hoped whatever would come at her today, she had practiced enough.

For once she didn’t have to get out at her usual stop, but two stops further down, closer to the local gym. They’d be taking their exams there. As she passed the bus stop near school without getting out, it already felt like an era had come to an end.

At the local gym, students were assembling near the entrance. The doors to the main gym hall were wide open and the big hall was filled with desks separated widely from the others. Teachers were directing in which rows HAVO and VWO students were supposed to sit. Glinda didn’t spot Elphaba and since this exam would take three hours and surveillance would be unlike anything, she didn’t wait for either Elphaba or Boq and found a place on her own. She put her phone on mute and in her bag, as even the ring of a single cellphone could make every single student’s exam ineligible.

Glinda placed four pens on her table and a bottle of water with - as per the rules - the label scrapped off. She stared at the big clock that was placed in front. Just a couple of minutes before the exam would start. She took a deep breath and tried to calm her nerves.

The next two weeks would determine the rest of her life.


	9. Gala

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Dutch Dictionary:**  
>  _Hospiteren / Hospiteeravond:_ There are no campus dormitories for any of the Dutch higher education. Our country is small enough that the majority of students can travel to their universities from home (PT is free for students on weekdays). But for the students who live too far away to commute or want to move out, they can go _op kamers_ (rooming). Common is to share an apartment with some other students. Everyone has their own actual room, but you share facilities like the bathroom and kitchen. Of course there’s more demand than rooms, so this is when you _hospiteer_. Pretty much a selection process to see if you get the room. I’ve had pleasant and terrible experiences with this.  
>  _Gala:_ gala is our version of prom, but don’t expect any of the classic drama you’re used to. There is no expectation to couple up, so thankfully nobody has to deal with promposals or that kind of asking out stress. It also is solely for the seniors so you can’t invite a plus one who isn’t graduating or is from a different school. Only actual couples might come as a couple, but most will come with their group of friends.  
> At least in my town it was custom to have this “parade” where everybody gets driven up to the location of the gala in extraordinary or expensive cars. Usually it’s full of dads showing off their cars, but it’s the place where you can show off to the whole town, so more out of the ordinary entrees are common as well. We also had gala on a boat, so that’s happening here too.

Exams had finished over a month ago and it would only be two weeks until their results would come in. Today, however, Glinda would not have to experience any of that stress as tonight would be _gala_. With pin curls in her hair, she rummaged through the filled coffee table.

“What are you looking for, dear?” Highmuster asked from behind his newspaper.

“Uhm, just some nail polish. Have you seen it?”

“How many times do I need to tell you to clean up after yourself? I don’t like having all your stuff lying around where it doesn’t belong. We gave you a room, didn’t we?”

Their conversations were always on the verge of bickering. Her dad meant well, but he had a knack for sounding disappointed. Even though she knew he never came through with a real threat. 

“Well, I felt like watching TV yesterday when I was doing my nails, so...”

“And I don’t understand why you need to do that in the living room. It’s like if I were to shave my beard in the kitchen sink. It’s off-putting.”

“Mom says it’s fine, so does Ama. Ah! There it is.” Glinda snatched the nail polish, hidden behind the magazine stack. “By the way, I told you Elphie’s gonna eat dinner with us, right?”

“Yes, you did. What time is she coming?”

“They, dad.”

“Shoot, I did it again?” Highmuster sighed defeatedly and put his newspaper down. “Just when I thought I was getting the hang of these new pronouns. When will… they come?”

“I think we said four, but maybe earlier. I’m going to do their hair.”

“It’s times like these I really do feel for that kid,” Highmuster mumbled to himself, and he folded the newspaper back open.

\--

When Elphaba arrived, they were in their suit already. They hung up the jacket in the closet for now and sat down at the kitchen table so Glinda could get to work.

“How did she talk you into this one, Elphaba?” Highmuster said amused from his armchair.

“Oh, she didn’t, sir. It was my idea. Hair isn’t my expertise and I know Glinda won’t make it overtly feminine like a hairdresser might.”

“See, dad?” Glinda stuck out her tongue to him. “He wouldn’t listen to a word I said.”

“Listen, you have your mother’s persistence, I had to be sure. Lord knows I’ve been roped into some fashion shenanigans,” he muttered the last bit.

Glinda chuckled. “Anything you want to share with us, _papa_?”

“No, I’m good. Fascinating piece here about a potential new tax on paperclips. Must read. Go on with your hair things, I won’t be a bother.”

“Alright, as you wish,” Glinda said with cheek. She combed through Elphaba’s hair and couldn’t resist dragging her fingers through it before she started on the braid.

“By the way, I just finished _hospiteren_ for this one room,” Elphaba said.

“Huh, did you travel to Shiz today?”

“Nah, this was video call. I doubt I’ll get it, though. Even with travel and first year’s priority, they mentioned they had narrowed it down to twenty people. Twenty! It’s not even that good a room.”

“Oz, I have a _hospiteeravond_ in like a week. I’m absolutely terrified. Did you hear what Milla had to do? Everyone had to name what type of fruit they’d be, explain why, and nobody was allowed to choose the same fruit. What kind of question is _that_?”

“I would get up and leave, honestly. This call was pretty relaxed, I spoke to all three housemates and they asked some questions and we had a bit of a chat. Inevitably, they asked about the green, but they seemed pretty cool about it.” 

“See, didn’t I tell you?”

Elphaba frowned. “What?”

“Last year, when it was freezing and we walked back home. I told you people wouldn’t be bothered by it. University is chill like that.”

“Oh yeah? So you’ll have no problem coming out as trans?”

“Ouch, low blow,” Glinda said and took a hair tie off her wrist. “Fine, point made. Wherever I end up, I need to figure out if they’re cool with queer people before I move in.”

“Queer people aren’t subtle. Just look for a pride flag hanging in someone’s room and then you’ll know. Anyway, why are you worrying about this? You don’t _have_ to come out.”

“My surgery is in mid November, remember? I cannot _not_ tell my housemates I’ll be hospitalized for a week and then barely functioning for another six.”

“Shit, you’re right.”

“It stresses me out. I’ll definitely miss classes so I need to let professors know. And of course persuade other students to give me their notes. Oh, and they plan me in _right_ before terms, like the worst possible time imaginable.” 

Without moving their head, Elphaba reached out over their shoulder and grabbed her hand. Glinda had to let go of her braiding and fell silent. Only now did she realize how much she had been ranting.

“I worry too much, don’t I?” 

“I get where you’re coming from, but yeah, you do. We still need to graduate. These things will fall into place, Glinda. You gotta trust in your future self.”

“Well, if she’s anything like my _past_ self...” 

Elphaba snickered. “It’s nothing you can’t handle, babe. All you have to do today is enjoy _gala_.”

She smiled and after she finished the last touches on the braid, planted a kiss in their hair. “Thanks. And you’re allowed to move again.”

“Oh, is it done?”

“Yes, go check it in the downstairs bathroom mirror and see if you like it.”

Elphaba glided off the chair to see the result for themself. Meanwhile, Glinda rushed up to her room to get the accessoire she had bought for Elphaba. It was a similar deep purple, matching the dress she would wear.

When Glinda made it back to the kitchen, Ama had started preparing for dinner and was making light conversation with Elphaba.

“I got you a little something,” Glinda said and handed them a tiny box.

“For me?” Elphaba looked surprised. “Did you buy this?” They clicked it open and a smile appeared on their face. “Isn’t this the colour you’ll be wearing?”

“Yes, as will you. Just a little pocket square for us to match.”

“That’s adorable,” Elphaba said and kissed her cheek. “Thanks, this is great. I’ve never worn one of these.”

Glinda twirled around to her father and batted her eyelashes. “ _Papa_ , can you help Elphaba out with their pocket square?”

Highmuster put down the paper he was still reading through and got out of the chair with a heave. “Finally, someone who needs my expertise with something I’m capable of.” 

“You’re more than capable, Mr. Upland. The wash you gave your car nearly blinded me.”

He let out a belting laugh. “Thank goodness, that means I didn’t slave away two hours for nothing. As if I’m going to ride you two up to _gala_ in a mediocre car.” He motioned Elphaba over to show him their jacket. “Oh, and no need for this Mister business, alright? You and Glinda have been dating for a year. It’s high time we let go of those formalities.” 

\--

It was odd seeing students and teachers in formal wear, but there was something exciting about it. Everyone had gone all out to make a big impression. Not just with clothing, but with the vehicles as well. Glinda never really knew much about which cars were supposed to be impressive, but there were a few notable exceptions. Boq’s dad drove him in one of their tractors, as he had told them many times was a family tradition. Then there was a girl who had persuaded her local marching band to escort her to the _gala_ , and the couple of _HAVO_ 5 who rode on a tandem.

“What would you have done if I suggested we’d come on a tandem?” Elphaba had said when the couple came into view.

“Taken your favorite biology book and smacked some sense back into you.”

It took a long time before everyone was on board, but at last the boat on which their _gala_ took place took off, and the crowd that had gathered on the docks became little specks on the horizon. They would course for some time on the Munchkin River before turning back around. Glinda took her time to enjoy the view, chat with some fellow classmates and her favorite teachers, and pose for many photos.

Once it became dark, and– even with Elphaba’s jacket slung over her shoulders– too cold to be on deck, Glinda and Elphaba headed inside.

“Have you seen Boq and Milla? I kind of lost track of them,” Elphaba said as they readjusted their jacket and checked if the pocket square was still in place.

“Might be on the dancefloor? I feel like getting a drink first.”

They went down a floor and Elphaba ordered their drinks. They were sitting near the bar, Glinda was sipping at her wine and Elphaba was already halfway through their beer. Their conversation came abruptly to a halt when Pfannee made her way to their side of the bar and gave them a dirty side eye.

“Oh, if it isn’t our _favourite_ transgenders,” Pfannee huffed loudly and snapped her fingers to gain the bartender’s attention. “White wine please, handsome.” She lifted her hand and showed him the paper wristband every student who was eighteen had to wear.

Shenshen wrung her way through the crowd and leaned over the bar next to her. “Cola for me, please.” 

The bartender nodded and made the drinks. Pfannee glanced over to them. “You know, usually the boy wears the suit and the girl a dress. How _cute_ of you two to switch things up.” 

Glinda’s stomach dropped. Elphaba put their glass down with quiet anger and worked their jaw. “Pfannee, you have _one_ second to get out of my fucking face or I swear -”

“I wasn’t staying,” Pfannee said bored and took her drink from the counter. “Bye, bitches.” 

She turned her heel and left an awkward Shenshen behind, who took her soda and looked at them with an apology in her eyes. Barely audible, Shenshen said, “I think your dress looks real nice, Glinda.” 

Her cheeks flushed pink and she scurried after Pfannee, vanishing into the crowd. 

Glinda felt how strained her muscles were and let out a shuddered breath to release some of the tension. She wasn’t going to let a stupid comment ruin her night.

“I know,” Elphaba muttered and wrapped an arm around her waist. “Are you okay?”

She nodded. “I’m done letting those two get to me.”

“Good.” Elphaba kissed her cheek and looked over at the crowd with a furrowed brow. “Was it just me, or is Shenshen starting to get some regrets?” 

Glinda thought back to when Shenshen asked her to hang up posters. “I think she has been for a while, actually. Anyway, I don’t care. I don’t want to talk about them.”

“You’re right, it’s a waste of time.” 

Elphaba drank the last bit of their beer and stood up. “Come on, let’s dance,” they held out their hand and gave her a smirk. “We’re going to show them how fearless us _transgenders_ can be by enjoying the heck out of this night.”


	10. Results

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Dutch Dictionary**  
>  _Slagen:_ in this context means to graduate. 50% of our graduation depends on _eindexamens_ , while the other 50% is three years’ worth of grades. If - among others - your total average is less than 5.5 average, you’ll fail. You get to retake one exam, and if there’s a chance to still graduate by upping your grade, you can take the retake ( _herkansing_ ). If you then still fail afterwards, you’ll have to redo the entire year. All on the same day, each student gets called by their mentor, teacher or principal to hear whether they graduated or not, or if they have to go up for a _herkansing_.  
> If you’ve passed you’re also allowed to retake an exam to try to get a better grade in one subject matter. Not many people do this, as grade average isn’t that important here for higher education. Before _eindexamens_ the vast majority is ‘temporarily’ accepted anyway, and get fully accepted once they get their diploma.  
>  _Vlag uithangen:_ a little custom we have to signal to the neighborhood when you’ve graduated, is to raise the Dutch flag and hang a backpack or books beside it. That’s how everyone can see if someone recently graduated in the house!  
>  _VAVO:_ abbreviation meaning high school education for adults. This is a school for adults who never finished high school. It’s also for students who failed their _eindexamens_ , but don’t feel like doing over the entire grade - as is customary (you can’t just retake the course you failed, you do over the entire year). At _vavo_ however, you _can_ just retake the courses you failed during your previous _eindexamens_ , and have all your other grades count as they are for next year.  
>  _Opa:_ an informal way of saying granddad that everyone uses these days.

Glinda twirled her thumbs. In just a few minutes it would be one o’clock, which meant she would get a call from Crope. She had tried to relax by doing her make-up or checking her social media and even opened up a page of a book, but she was far too nervous to be doing any of that. Within an hour she would know whether she could go to Shiz or not.

To avoid any confusion, Crope had promised to call every student he mentored. But if you got called early in the hour, chances were you hadn’t graduated yet. Glinda watched as the clock on her phone jumped to 13:00; the waiting game had begun.

Glinda had informed Ama not to call her today to ask her if she had graduated. What if she had missed Crope’s call? Sure, he would call again, but every minute was nerve-wracking. She didn’t want to end up at the bottom of the list and sit in these nerves for much longer.

But what would happen if she hadn’t graduated? What if she had to retake chemistry? Merciful Lurline; if that were the case, she might as well write herself up for _VAVO_ this instant. Her spiralling thoughts were immediately disrupted when her phone rang.

_13:11._

“Fuck,” she swore under her breath. Reminding herself this didn’t necessarily have to mean anything, she picked up the phone. “Glinda Upland speaking.”

“Hey Glinda, it’s your mentor, Crope. You probably don’t want me to beat around the bush, so should I just tell you right away?”

She grasped the phone tighter. “Please.”

“So, unfortunately -” her heart crumbled “- I have to inform you you haven’t graduated yet. _But_ , I also don’t want you to worry, okay? Your grades aren’t all bad.”

Glinda tried her best to take it all in, but it became increasingly difficult to do while also trying to repress the sobs that wanted to make their way out. She grasped at the root of her hair as silent tears dropped on her desk. 

“Are you still with me, Glinda?”

She inhaled sharply. “... Yeah.”

“Okay, we’ll talk more later, but for now know you won’t have to retake chemistry. I know you and chemistry aren’t great buds, and you’ll never have to worry about that bullshit again, alright? Please don’t tell Mrs. Klei I called her subject bullshit.”

Through her tears she let out a weak chuckle.

“Your total average is just short at 5.4, and I saw you didn’t have the greatest time with that difficult English exam. Trust me, you weren’t the only one struggling. You got a 4.8 for it, but if you can get it up to a 5.1 or higher, you can graduate alongside the rest of your class. That seems doable, right?”

Not knowing what else to say, she just replied with a “yeah”.

“Don’t worry too much, Glinda. I’ve been teaching you English for three years and know you’re good enough to kill this _herkansing_. Tomorrow I’ll email you and we’ll make a nice plan of action together. We can sit down together at school and really dissect what went wrong on the first try and prepare you to the max. Does that sound good?”

“Uhm,” she rubbed the tears from her cheeks and tried to control her voice. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

“I really hoped I could have given you better news, I really did. You’ve had such a difficult year and you wrestled through it all like the fierce girl you are. This is just one final little hurdle you have to jump over. I _know_ you got this.”

She smiled a little. “Thanks, Crope.”

“Alright, I’m going to have to hang up now and call your classmates. Take it easy today. We’ll talk again tomorrow.”

“Okay, bye.”

Glinda hung up and it hit her like a ton of bricks. She hadn’t graduated yet. This year still wasn’t over. How was she going to tell her friends and family, who were all hoping for good news, that there was still a chance every part of her future could get delayed? She didn’t want to spend another year in Colwen Grounds, now that she had had a taste of starting a new life at Shiz.

She dragged her hands through her hair as new tears pricked in her eyes. 

“ _Fuck._ ”

\--

That evening, Glinda biked through town, averting her gaze from the green and golden Ozian flags with backpacks proudly displayed. What should have been a symbol of celebration felt to Glinda like a sting of failure.

She stopped at Elphaba’s house, where the same Ozian flag and a backpack hung from the first floor. Before Glinda rang the doorbell, she bit her cheek and forced a smile on her face. The bell echoed through the house and moments later Elphaba opened the door.

“Congratu-”

Elphaba had wrapped their arms around her before she could finish her sentence. It threw her off guard and her breath got caught in her throat.

“No need for that, alright? You’re not going to pretend you’re happy for me.”

Glinda’s arms hung limp next to her body and she felt a familiar sting in her eyes. “But I _am_ happy for you.”

“I know you are. But tonight we’re focusing on you.” 

Hesitantly, Glinda hugged them back and felt herself relax in their embrace. “Oz, what did I do to deserve you?”

“By being the most amazing girl I’ve ever met.”

“Stop, you’ll make me cry,” Glinda giggled and dabbed the tears from her eyes with her fingers. 

Elphaba smiled at her and planted a kiss against her temple. “C’mon, let’s take a walk to the park.”

“Don’t you have family over right now?”

“Well, my _opa_ is here, but he’s been here since dinner, and given how much he whines about his life, I could really use a break.”

They made their way to the local park and sat down at the bench they used to sit at all the time, last summer. Back when they were still too self-conscious of making their relationship public. How much had changed in a year. Glinda was happy they passed that stage of their relationship and gladly held Elphaba’s hand the entire time.

“By the way, what did you do at school?” 

“You didn’t miss much, it was just a minor celebration with tea and biscuits. I knew you texted me your results, but it was still weird you weren’t there.”

“Yeah…” Glinda had much rather drank some tea, instead of spending her afternoon crying into her pillow. “Was I the only one not there?”

“No, there were a couple missing. I know Milla is up for a _herkansing_ too; even with that, she still won’t graduate. So her decision has to be either _VAVO_ or retaking the whole year. I don’t think I saw Avaric either.”

“Anyone else?”

“Couple of others, I think, but you know I don’t really pay much mind to most of our classmates.”

“God, but Milla, though. I didn’t know her grades were that bad. Or did she blow up her _eindexamens_?” 

“I think she had decent enough grades, but I remember she was really nervous taking the _eindexamens_. Maybe that affected her final grades?”

“I guess.” Glinda let her gaze wander across the empty playfield. “Then again, I could still fail my _herkansing_ and spent another year here.”

“There’s no way, Glinda. After maths, English is one of your better subjects. You shouldn’t doubt yourself so much.”

But the thought kept lingering in the back of Glinda’s mind. It made her feel like she had swallowed a ton of bricks. Elphaba would be off at Shiz, starting a new and exciting part of their life. Why would they wait for someone who didn’t even graduate high school? What did she have to offer that could keep this relationship afloat? 

An agonizing sob escaped her throat and she buried her face in her hands.

“Whoa! Glinda, what’s going on?” Elphaba asked alarmed.

“W-What if I _fail_ , Elphie? Y-You’ll go to Shiz and-and go on w-with your life and meet a-another girl and then…” Through her sobs, she couldn’t bear to finish that sentence.

Elphaba gentle rubbed her back. “Not going to happen.”

She looked up to meet their eye. “You don’t know t-that.”

“I _do_ know that, and you know why? Because you are my _home_ , Glinda. So what if you fail? So what if I start a year earlier at Shiz? You think a bit of distance is going to break up this relationship?” Carefully, they wiped the tears from her cheeks. “It’s not going to, not if it’s up to me.”

Glinda swallowed thickly. “How are you so sure?”

A blush crept on their face. “At the expense of embarrassing myself, I’ll leave out some details, but, for as long as we’ve been together I’ve had this thought in the back of my head. Over time that thought has only grown. Glinda, I want to marry you.”

Her eyes grew wide.

“N-Not now, of course. We’re still far too young for that. I’d like to, one day, but we need to mess up a whole lot more before we get to that point.” Their blush had expanded to their roots, and a shy smile appeared on their face. “So, years from now when we’re both ready for it, I want to ask for your hand in marriage. And I hope you’ll say yes, because I don’t want to imagine the rest of my life without you.”

Elphaba dried the few tears that were left and stroked Glinda’s cheek with their thumb. “To answer your question, no, I’m not afraid of you failing your _herkansing_ , and that is a _big_ if. Because when it comes to us, I’ve made up my mind a long time ago.”

“You are just -” Glinda was at a loss for words. She threw her arms around their neck and buried her face in their hair. “God. I love you _so_ much, Elphie.”

Elphaba left a kiss on her shoulder and smiled. “I love you too.”

\--

Three days had passed when Glinda took the familiar bus ride to school. Tomorrow would be her _herkansing_ and she had her appointment with Crope. Apparently a student from _HAVO_ 5 would be joining them too.

Walking through her exam did nothing to lower her anxieties for tomorrow and when she filled in half of the wrong answers for a practice exam she burst into tears. 

“I c-can’t do this,” Glinda cried, defeatedly.

Crope put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, Glinda. One test isn’t determining your future.”

She shook her head. “I’m not r-ready for tomorrow.”

“Here’s what we’ll do, you’re going to take some time to relax right now and I’ll round this session off with Bas alone. In an hour I’m going home and you can come with me. We’ll drink some tea and take our time to build back that confidence, okay?”

Glinda brushed the tears from her face and nodded. Anything but focusing on this stupid exam sounded perfect. She stuffed her pencils and notes in her bag and moved to one of the seats in the _OLC_ with a computer. The rest of the hour she looked up referential pictures of modern built beach houses for one of her personal projects.

At last, Crope notified her he was ready to go and Glinda logged off. They walked for about twenty minutes to his home where Tibbett had already put some tea out for them.

“Want sugar, Glinda?”

“Yes, please.”

It was a bit strange to be in her teachers’ home, but they made her feel welcome. Glinda didn’t know what to expect from their house, but it certainly was a lot more adult-looking than she had imagined it to be. It had a very modern and spacious look. Apart from the turquoise couch accompanied by fuschia pillows, there weren’t any more exaggerated colours or pieces. Compared to Tibbett’s fashion style, the furniture was pretty mellow. 

“The computer is in my workspace so let’s go there,” Crope said. As he passed Tibbett, he gave him a peck on the cheek.

They made their way upstairs and sat down behind his desk. Crope turned on the computer and gave Glinda a smile. 

“So you said you were researching beach houses? Is this for your portfolio?”

“Not really, it’s just practice.”

“But you said you were drawing it?”

“Oh yeah, but I’ll only put a drawing in my portfolio when I’m really proud of it. The bachelor for engineering is still pretty broad; I suppose I’ll only have to show them my portfolio when I start specializing.”

“You’re looking forward to Shiz?”

Glinda grew self-conscious. “You’re talking as if I already graduated.”

“You will,” Crope smiled. “Like I said, one small hurdle left. I have faith in you, and I think you should have a little faith in yourself too.”

“How?” Glinda swallowed, not realizing the question had been on her mind to begin with. “I didn’t graduate at once like all the others.”

“That’s true, but nobody got outed like you got this year, either. They didn’t have to stand strong, like you have. I don’t think you realize yet how much character you have shown this year. So what, you gotta retake a single exam? That’s all? Girl, you are a superwoman.”

Glinda let out a laugh. “If you say so.”

“Oh, I know so. And I’ll show you too.” He clicked on one of the older exams and opened up the document. “When I looked over your exam I saw you struggled mostly with the reading portion. So this is what you’ll do: when you see a big text like this, what do you do?”

“Well, read the text obviously.”

“Incorrect, you read the first and last paragraph and nothing else.”

She furrowed her brow. “What?” 

“I know, counterintuitive, right? Promise to never do this on any other text. _CITO_ is trying to trip you up by throwing in useless information throughout the text. By only reading the introduction and conclusion, you get a general gist of what it’s about. If you’ve done that, you’ll move to the questions.”

“Already?”

“Yes, so the first question is about the first paragraph, so assuming you just read that, you can answer it. Here’s the thing about these exams: if _CITO_ says something about a paragraph, your answer will be in that _exact_ paragraph. Not below or above. So here, question two is about paragraph three. _Now_ you read paragraph three.”

“This is blowing my mind,” Glinda said with wide eyes. “I did this all wrong the first time. But, I always feel with the questions that give you a word limit I can never give a solid enough answer.”

“In that case, just repeat the question as a statement as the start of your sentence. Any repetition doesn’t get counted as part of your answer.”

“You’re kidding me!” Glinda gasped. “I never knew! I’m allowed to do that?” 

Crope let out a laugh. “Yes, you are. This is brand new information to you?”

“Well, yeah!”

“Damn, I really need to repeat that more in my classes. Anyway, let’s do this one for real, let’s print this out.” 

The printer lit up and started buzzing as it spat out the pieces of paper. 

“Alright, here you go,” Crope said as he handed over the exam. “You got a pencil?”

“Right here,” Glinda said as she reached for her bag. 

“Okay, now take your time and remember to take the questions as your guidance, and not the text. I’ll be back in ten.”

Crope left the room and Glinda went to work. Compared to her first try during _eindexamens_ , there was a certain clarity within the text by following Crope’s instructions. The world limit at open questions was no longer a hassle either, now that she knew she could just repeat the sentence. With one question left, Crope walked back in.

“You nearly done?”

“Last one,” Glinda said as she penned down her answer. She counted the words and still had two words to spare. On all her exams, that had never happened and she always had to scratch some out. With confidence she put the pencil down.

“Now that’s what I like to see,” Crope commented with a hint of pride in his voice. “It’s like I’m looking at a totally different Glinda.”

She smiled. “I think this went well.”

“That’s great! Shall we look over the answers then?” 

Crope pulled up the answering sheet and walked through the questions with her. Her good feeling didn’t come out of nowhere; she had answered almost every question correctly.

“I believe that puts you at 9 out of 11 points for this text alone. That’s amazing, Glinda!”

“Really!? Didn’t I get like 5 out of 12 on my actual _eindexamen_?”

“I believe so. You realize that this alone will put you over the edge, right? And you still got the smaller texts left. You only need to get 0,3 higher than you got before.” He patted her shoulder. “I told you; you _got_ this.”

With relief, Glinda exhaled the breath she had been holding. For the first time since she got the news she hadn’t made it yet, she believed the words of encouragement everyone had been showering her with. They no longer felt like empty words and Shiz no longer felt like an unattainable dream.

Tomorrow she would take the _herkansing_ , and this time, she would pass.


	11. Last Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Dutch Dictionary:**  
>  _Diploma-uitreiking:_ means the graduation ceremony. We don’t have valedictorians so nobody has to compete for the ‘top spot’ because there is no ‘top spot’. We also don’t have weird robes and even dumber hats (rip to Americans but we’re different).

Glinda opened the school doors and held it open for her parents. In the hallway there was a sign that read: _GRADUATES WELCOME!_ Her heart fluttered. She had killed her _herkansing_ and gotten a 6,8. This would probably be the last time she would set foot in this building. After summer, she would start her bachelor at Shiz University.

“Ah Glinda, good to see you,” Crope spoke up. He was wearing a neat, dark button-up with a subtle flower-pattern and some nice slacks. “Graduates are to assemble in room 212. Mr. and Mrs. Upland,” Crope said as he shook their hands. “Family can sit in the atrium. We’ll be starting in ten minutes.”

“Good luck, honey,” Larena said to Glinda and squeezed her hand. “We’ll see you in a bit.” 

Glinda walked up the stairs and entered 212, where a lot of students had already gathered. Elphaba and Boq were standing in the back of the room.

“There you are,” Elphaba smiled as they spotted her. “You look amazing.”

“You say as if I hadn’t shown you my outfit before,” Glinda said and kissed their cheek. “You look handsome, as always.”

“You two are gross,” Boq teased them. “After summer I’ll be at CMU and you two will be all the way over Shiz, and even with 300 kilometers between us, I’ll make random gagging noises every time you two are being gross.”

Elphaba laughed. “What, like a sixth sense?”

Boq stuck out his tongue. “You know what I mean.”

“Well, Boq, we’ll be sure to think about you when we’re making out.” Glinda winked.

Boq actually turned red in the face and Elphaba billowed with laughter. “You’re turtling in your collar there, Boq.”

“Please, don’t actually do that. I’d never - I don’t... I’m going over there now,” Boq said and turned around. “Aro-ace out!”

Elphaba grinned. “I love it when his own jokes turn against him.”

A few more minutes passed before Mrs. Tigelaar told them all to gather and walk down in pairs of two and instructed them to sit in the front rows of the auditorium. With Elphaba by her side, Glinda walked down the stairs in a line, a custom that was reminiscent of _basisschool_. Despite the childish custom, Glinda felt jitters of excitement crawling in her stomach. It finally hit her: she was about to graduate!

Her younger self would never have been able to dream this far. _Middelbare school_ was like a never ending darkened hallway that would have trapped her inside forever. The frightened little girl at twelve years of age, who cried and threw up above the toilet seat at the prospect of having to go back to school. That girl had never been able to imagine this moment. 

Upon entering the auditorium, the graduates were met with roaring applause and Glinda smiled as she passed her parents. Since the ceremony was only meant for graduates of VWO6, the mentors could take their time saying something nice about each student. While Crope was complimenting his students, Glinda wondered what he would say when it was her turn, and if it would have anything to do with the events back in December.

Elphaba reached over and took her hand and held it until they got called up to the stage. Glinda tried her best to focus on what was being said, but the students had been called up on alphabetical order, and she knew she would be next. 

When Crope called her name, Glinda felt a twinge in her muscles when she walked up to the stage. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed how Crope smiled at her, and gave her a subtle wink.

“Glinda is a girl of many talents,” he started. “Not only have her maths grades always impressed me, I’ve heard Tibbett gush many times what an incredible creative spirit she is.” 

Crope turned his face from the crowd and directly looked at Glinda. “But I think what has left the biggest impression on me is how resilient you can be. No matter what challenge gets thrown at you, you are ready to face it. That’s why I’m certain you’re going to kill it next year at Shiz University.”

The audience clapped and no matter how surreal this moment felt, Glinda tried to let it sink in. She walked up to the nearby table she had to sign her diploma. The teacher tending the table shook her hand once all documents were signed and pointed at the line of teachers who would congratulate her. 

Elphaba was making their way down the line too and Glinda followed suit. Most teachers shook her hand and congratulated her, but a few teachers made some additional comments. Ms. Greyling mentioned how much it had affected her what happened in December and she had started attending a training to prevent and intervene quicker when a student gets bullied, especially if they’re targeted for being LGBT. Her chemistry teacher, Mrs. Klei complimented her for putting so much hours in for her _eindexamen_ , and said she was impressed by the progress Glinda had made in that final sprint. And finally there was Tibbett, who wrapped her in a brief hug. “Crope’s real proud of you,” he said. “And so am I.”

“Thank you.” Glinda said, trying not to tear up. “Without his help, I would have never passed my _herkansing_.”

He patted her shoulder and gave her a smile. “Nonsense. That was all you.” 

Only a few students came after Glinda and not long after the official part of the ceremony got wrapped up. Everyone stayed for a bit to chat and say their goodbyes. Glinda got entangled in a conversation with Boq and some teachers and after a while excused herself.

She looked around the auditorium but couldn’t spot Elphaba anywhere. She took out her phone and send them a text.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/142883458@N07/49091760757/in/dateposted-friend/)

She noticed Elphaba hadn’t looked on their phone since the ceremony started and figured it could take a bit before they would reply. She decided to visit the bathroom in the meantime and took her time checking her make-up while keeping an eye on her phone. Glinda was washing her hands when someone else walked into the bathroom. It was Pfannee. She halted when she saw Glinda. 

“Oh, I must’ve seen the sign wrong, because I _thought_ this was the girl’s bathroom.” With an exaggerated turn she checked the sign on the door. “Hm, guess I was right. This isn’t the bathroom for transgendered freaks.”

“Seriously, Pfannee?” Glinda said annoyed and took a paper towel and rubbed her hands dry. “This is our last day together. That might actually be the last thing you’ll ever say to me.”

“Yeah, I’m good with that.”

“Well, you just made this surprisingly easy for me.” Glinda stuffed the paper towel in the garbage bin and looked Pfannee dead in the eyes. “You’re a backstabbing bitch and I cannot _wait_ to never have to listen to a single word that comes out of your filthy mouth.”

With confidence in her step she strode past Pfannee, who as always was determined to have the last word.

“Shenshen was the one who outed you, y’know,” she called after her.

Glinda froze in place. Her eyes shifted and she slowly turned around. “What?”

“I know she’s recently been kissing your ass or whatever, but that’s only because she feels guilty. But make no mistake, _she_ was the one who posted the original anonymous message. Her aunt overheard you talking to Elphaba, or something? I think it was during a St. Maarten celebration.”

Her throat dried up. _The woman who was standing near them._ She remembered now. That was Shenshen’s aunt?

“Anyway, she mentioned it to Shenshen when they visited her family for Sinterklaas. Shenshen immediately went online and found all that shit from your previous schools. She messaged me and I wanted to confront you in person the next day, but Shenshen was dead set on publishing it.” 

Pfannee narrowed her eyes and stepped closer to her. “So whatever narrative you’ve spun in your head that I’m worse than her, remember it was _her_ fault that information got out in the first place.”

Glinda’s body shook, whether from anger or dread, she wasn’t sure. She balled her hand into a fist and took a deep breath. “No.”

Pfannee raised an eyebrow. “No?”

“That information was out there anyway. It didn’t matter who found it or that it spread around, what _mattered_ is how you dealt with it. The fact that I’m trans shouldn’t have made a difference, but it took less than a second for you and Shenshen and hell, half of this school, to turn on me.”

She gazed up to stop the tears from falling down. “I used to be so scared of this, of getting outed. I diminished myself in my head. I listened to that _stupid_ voice that told me I’d never be as good as any cis girl. _I could’ve been perfect, if only I were born a girl_.” She shook her head and met Pfannee’s gaze. “I never should’ve listened to that voice, because it led me straight into the arms of toxic bullies like you.”

“Excuse me?” 

“So you know what, Pfannee? _Thank you_ for doing your absolute worst. For being the biggest pain in the ass you could have possibly been to me, because you showed me how capable I am. While I grew up, you stayed the same pathetic and selfish child that you have always been and you _wish_ you could be half the girl that I am today.”

Pfannee turned red in the face and yelled back, “I’m more of a girl than you’ll ever be!” 

“Oh, yeah? Why don’t you mull it over while you suck my tiny girl dick.” Glinda stepped closer. “Or wait six months, if you prefer a freshly built clit.” 

Glinda turned around and didn’t wait for a response. The adrenaline still rushing in her veins, she made her way upstairs and leaned against some lockers. Energy buzzed around her and a broad smile was plastered across her face.

“ _Holy shit_ ,” she whispered in awe. 

Had she really just done that? Was she sure she hadn’t dreamt it somehow? She didn’t know where the words had come from, but it felt so _good_ to say them out loud. The expression on Pfannee’s face she would never forget. If only her twelve-year-old self could see her now!

Her thoughts drifted back to what she planned originally and Glinda checked her phone once more and saw Elphaba had replied.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/142883458@N07/49091558911/in/dateposted-friend/)

“Biology?” Glinda frowned, and wondered what they were doing there. She pushed herself from the lockers and walked through the hallway towards the science classrooms. Through the glass windows, Glinda saw how Elphaba was standing deep in the classroom, their hand skimming over one of the lab tables.

Carefully, Glinda opened the door and poked around her head. “Hey, can I come in?”

Elphaba turned around and smiled. “That’s why I texted, didn’t I?”

Glinda closed the door and as she leaned against it, put her hands on her back. Elphaba looked lost in thought as they stared at the table. A comfortable silence hung between them and Glinda watched them with a gentle and peculiar curiosity. 

Once Elphaba noticed she was watching them, their cheeks flushed. “What?”

“Just wondering what you’re doing here,” Glinda said with a smile and she walked up to them. “I knew you weren’t fond of crowds, but hiding in abandoned classrooms is a whole new level of antisocial.”

They rolled their eyes at her tease. “You’re lucky you’re cute.”

“Hm, I know,” Glinda mused with a grin. She laced their fingers together and the tone in her voice shifted. “Saying goodbye to the building?”

“Something like that.” They looked around the classroom. “Seeing school like this, all empty, it’s pretty weird. It doesn’t even feel like school anymore.”

“I know, but is that so bad?” 

Elphaba shrugged. “It’s just weird.”

“You’re a sentimental soul.”

“But I’m not sentimental about my time here. It sucked. Six total years I have loathed this place. You and Boq were the only good things I had.” Elphaba caught themself. “Anyway, I don’t even know why I’m complaining, you had a much worse time during _middelbare school_.” 

“No need to downplay your own experiences for my sake. Although," she halted and a glistering appeared in her eyes. "I've learnt fairly recently that bad times make revenge that much sweeter. I totally told Pfannee off just now!”

“No way!” Elphaba gasped. “What did you tell her?”

“I’ll tell you everything in a bit,” Glinda glistened with pride and put her hands on their shoulders. “ _But_ for now I just wanted to say that it’s okay to be emotional. Even if your years here were complicated, you’re still closing a chapter. Don’t underestimate that.”

“You’re right.” Elphaba wrapped their arms around her and pulled her close. “You know what, though?”

Glinda leaned her head against their shoulder and closed her eyes. “Hm?”

“I can’t wait to start university, with my favourite girl by my side.”

She smiled against their chest. “Can’t wait to meet her some time.”

When she looked up to meet Elphaba’s gaze, their confused expression turned into a smile. Glinda giggled and laid a hand against their cheek and kissed them softly. The sweet taste of their lips was at once familiar and a whole new sensation.

Whatever would come next, Glinda knew she was ready for their next adventure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, and a special thanks to all who left a comment! If you like my Wicked fics, in the new year I'll continue my much angstier fic called [Wiretapped Life](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17541743/chapters/41334803) \- taking place in a split Oz, reminiscent of Cold War Germany. If that's not your cup of tea, in the future I do hope to write a one-shot in the Dutch HSAU universe where we get a brief glance into gelphie's college years! ^^


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